The Empty Cradle
by MaggiSakura
Summary: What if Maka's parents lived in the era of the warlords? How is soon to be Kishin going to deal with a situation of a kid in the cradle and its parents lying dead at his feet as accidental victims in witch hunts? Father/Daughter relationship. MAY CHANGE!
1. Prologue

**I know I have to finish the other fics yes but I can't keep this out from my head. Hope you're going to enjoy this because I plan on making this slightly a big story.**

**This is a prologue so it's gonna go fast(or at least that's what I felt when writing this…) I don't have the names for the great old one and the three other warlords but they have their picture in soul eater wiki. I'm going to create them names because they will be an important character in this story. If you can't find their picture it's here: wiki/Eight_ Powerful_ Warriors (remove the spaces!)**

**Here's the wooden alley that's leading to the cabin: ****www. momorial **** /images/ coun****tryside .jpg (take the spaces out.)**

Summary: What if Maka's parents lived in the era of the warlords? How is soon to be Kishin going to deal with a situation of a kid in the cradle and its parents lying dead at his feet as accidental victims in witch hunts?

"…" = talking

_´italics´ = thinking_

* * *

The Empty Cradle

_Prologue_

It was the Grim Time Period, when the land was ruled by Eight Powerful Warriors known as the Warlords or the Great Old Ones, and the witches' population was kept well at bay. But it was also the time where terror and fear were at their peak. Even though the world was in that state, in the countryside—in a cabin in a deciduous forest—Spirit Albarn couldn't care less right now about the world. He was extremely anxious and sitting outside the nice cabin that was his home, sweating and rocking himself backwards and forwards. Half an hour ago his pregnant wife, Kami Albarn, had just had her water break.

It had become chaotic during breakfast when Spirit almost fainted, but he managed to go and get the doctor from the nearby village. The village was small and, since it was in the countryside, it was easy to run there. By the time the doctor arrived, Kami was having very painful contractions by the look on her face. The amniotic fluids were already on the floor and she screamed.

The doctor, a kind and plump old man, shoved Spirit out of the cabin. And so the husband was forced to wait outside. When he tried to look in from the windows to see what was happening inside, he had to turn his gaze away from Kami's pained face and the blood on the kitchen table where his wife was right now giving birth to their child.

Every time Kami screamed, Spirit jumped up in fright from the little bench he'd made from three beech logs. They were from the same tree that's shadow was shading their home right now. Right next to the small and very comfy looking cabin was a large beech tree that seemed almost a thousand years old. Where the forest ended there were meadows and a few other houses as well, but you could only see them if you walked over the hill that began behind their little cabin. The grass was so green and soft, and the trees overhanging the lake's bank were so beautiful. There were a few lilacs too, giving the landscape a color other than just shades of green.

"You need to push! I can already see the vertex," the doctor encouraged Kami in the cabin. Kami gave a last loud scream, and the doctor sighed in delight. Spirit stared at the door as if it was haunted. Mothers dying in childbirth were not unheard of, given the era they lived in. The latest was little Marilyn's mother, who gave birth to her in a pub and died right after.

The door opened and the doctor walked out, sweat on his forehead and looking slightly tired and happy. "You can go in now," he said, smiling and watching as Spirit wobbled inside the cabin.

You can't imagine how happy he was when the cries of the baby reached his ears and he saw how his wife smiled at him. They had a daughter.

* * *

"I've been informed that the witch activity has been increasing in the southern lands. It has come to the stage where it's very bad. I want one of you to go and exterminate these witches," Shinigami announced to his companions.

The eight warlords. They were masters of battle and war, as well as the ones who kept witches at bay and made sure laws were obeyed. These seven men were now sitting on the big candle wall that seemed to hold places for them. The eighth warlord, Lord Death—dubbed Shinigami—was hovering in the air in front of his fellow students and looking over them with scrutinizing eyes.

Eibon was the first to speak; he was standing in the middle of the wax wall but on one of the highest places. Not that anyone cared where they were sitting or standing. Well, maybe one of them—the one who was sitting on the highest place, hidden under one of the candles and pretending that the others were not where they were.

"Can they do high level magic?" Eibon asked.

"No. These are little rats who somehow found their way out from the previous witch hunt," Shinigami answered with so much apathy for the witches that it was scary. Clearly, he viewed everyone who couldn't use high level magic or be extremely good meisters as useless.

"Are there meisters among them?" the Japanese looking man asked. His name was Mugen Gushiken. His hand was on the sword on his hip and he was wearing a blue kimono that was so open that it revealed the man's chest and geta sandals. Although it might not seem like it, he was the weakest of the group but still awfully stronger than a normal person.

"I do not know. Probably not, because I don't think Mabaa would allow witches to become meisters under her watchful eye," Shinigami answered. He looked left to right before asking, "So who's going to go and take care of it? You can take two members with you if you're not confident enough. The rest of the group will come with me to the north to take care of the soon-to-be-Kishins."

There was a little talk among the lowest members near the cross-embedded ground. Soon the upper levels joined in too, except for one. Asura stayed away from the loop and tried to remain unnoticed. That attempt was soon nullified, as Shinigami called his name.

"Asura, are you up to it? Vajra won't complain if you train a little more, and I'm sure this will be a very easy mission for you." Shinigami completely missed the jealous looks a few of the warlords were giving to the careful man, well at least those who didn't have masks. Most of them belonged to the youngest ones in the group but as it is, the age differed from five hundred years to twenty.

The Japanese samurai was the one who showed it most openly, by frowning at this suggestion. "Shinigami-sama, I can go too. I'm eager to use my sword and I do think I can handle a mission of this caliber."

"Is that so…" Shinigami spoke in a small voice that seemed like a sigh. Yet, he hesitated when making the call, remembering how this man had caused them one great loss in the battle over cravasses in southern Europe. The quiet invidual behind him, who was still muttering, had a good headstart and Shinigami's trust. And Asura was stronger than Mugen. So strong it made Shinigami doubt whether the man was even human to begin with. Yet, when he pondered on this, he understood that would there be trouble, Asura could take care of it faster, more stealthily and with far more skill than the Samurai ever could.

"Thank you for your enthusiasm, but Asura's the one who is going to do it," Shinigami ordered, turning his head when he heard a snort from the wall above him. "I'm not taking any of your complaints, Asura. Now go!"

* * *

The Albarn household was doing well. Their baby girl, who they had named Maka, was in her mother's embrace. She was now three weeks old. Kami sat in the middle of the kitchen, on a decorated wooden chair, and it was the baby's feeding session. Spirit was in the town doing his carpenter's work, so that they could buy lots of clothes for their little girl. Kami already had one blue dress ready, and it would probably fit Maka when she was 4 or 5 years old.

When the baby looked full, she closed her eyes and slept. Kami could've sworn she hadn't seen such a beautiful creature before in her whole life. She walked outside, straight but slowly, to the gigantic beech and sat down, leaning against it. The woman inhaled the scents of the forest while listening to the birds. The sun was not too hot, and soon Kami herself fell asleep in the tree's shade.

When Kami opened her eyes next, Maka was already awake. The stars shone really brightly just above them, but you could see only a little since the canopy was in the way.

"Do you want to go and see the stars?" Kami cooed.

Maka giggled.

Kami stood up and walked through the forest behind the cabin and soon started going uphill. It wasn't anything arduous, and when the trees finally ended they were on top of the hill. The stars shone very brightly, lighting up the ground. There was no grinning moon on the sky.

"Aren't they beautiful?" Kami asked her little baby, who stared up at the sky. Even if Kami didn't know it, that night sky was carved into Maka's head for the rest of her life.

A little clattering sound was coming from the road that was in sight, and Kami squinted to see Spirit arriving home. He waved his hand to them when he spotted them. Spirit always went to work by the carriage, even though the horse that pulled it was nothing more than just an old mare that ate too much.

Kami started descending the little hill fast and soon arrived back at the little cabin. Since Maka was starting to cry from hunger, she opened her shirt and started to feed her but they were interrupted when Spirit stormed in.

"Kami, we have a problem!" her husband shouted, his face covered in blood. He didn't look as carefree as he did just moments ago and instead looked downright terrified.

"Spirit! Your face! What happened?" Kami asked, distressed and immediately closing her top. She tried to calm an angry Maka without succeeding. Kami strode next to her husband and gasped when she saw the tattered body her husband was supporting.

"We need to help her. I found her close our home," Spirit explained hastily and eyed the bleeding girl. She had this strange hat and wings that reminded Spirit of a bat, and abnormal black clothes that consisted of a dress, a cloak, weird boots, and bracelets. Kami paled when she realized who the stranger was.

"Spirit, the girl's a witch! Can't you see it? Only they dress like...like that!" Kami was now almost desperate to get her out of their home. No way was their normal life going to be ruined by a witch. She was well aware of the laws that stated that protecting a witch was counted as treason, and therefore the individual breaking these laws would receive severe punishment.

"You know what I think? Fuck their wars! Shinigami isn't here, and the witches aren't either. This is a goddamn lone girl who's hurt!" Spirit hollered and stepped inside with the girl. Kami let him come in and closed the door after looking left and right, making sure no one had seen them. Luckily, they lived in a forest, as was told before.

Spirit laid the girl on a bed and went to get towels and water. Kami was still holding Maka, but the baby was now very cranky and started crying.

"Don't worry sweetheart. Nothing's going to happen to us." Kami gazed at her baby with sorrowful eyes and brushed the little blond hair, calming the crying girl down a little bit. Kami sighed and went to the nursery, a small room consisting of toys, a trunk for clothes, a rocking chair, and a cradle. She walked over to the wooden cradle that was decorated very beautifully. Spirit was a carpenter, after all. Kami tucked her child in and kissed the top of the baby's head. Maka seemed to like that, since she reached out to tug her mother's hair.

"Good night baby," Kami said and closed the wooden door to the nursery, leaving her child alone for a bit and going to help her husband.

* * *

The next morning, the sunlight came through the windows and forest trees, creating a beautiful shade of green and white light. It streamed in from the windows and the unknown witch stirred. She gasped when she tried to get up but failed. The house didn't seem threatening and it had a nice odour…

"Easy there. We patched you up only yesterday," Spirit said, but it was more than enough for the witch to think that she had been captured by the enemy. The girl quickly took the closest weapon she had, which happened to be the spoon in the porridge. Abashment was clear in her face when she realized that she wasn't in danger, and Spirit chuckled while he explained the situation, his hair tied to a ponytail.

Kami was outside playing with Maka, going around in circles and holding her up in the air. The baby giggled in delight.

"Does my baby like high places? That's my girl." Kami laughed and gently started walking through the alley of deciduous trees. They were young but high, their branches creating a weak ceiling for the stone road.

"When you grow up, the first thing you're going to say is my name. Try to say it, K-A-M-I." Kami smiled at Maka who seemed clueless and was drooling a little on her mother. They headed back to the cabin, Maka resting her head on Kami's shoulder and watching the retreating scenery.

Kami completely missed the fires coming from the other side of the mountain, from their little village, and Maka was too young to really get what was happening. The black smoke and red field were reflected in her emerald eyes.

When they arrived, Spirit seemed to have forged a good friendship with the witch since the girl was sitting on his lap, laughing while eating.

"So you see…it was a real mess. My sisters got all scattered and we ran for our lives. It seems like the warlords don't like us being here for some reason. I think the almighty Shinigami is afraid of us," the witch cackled and opened her blue eyes. She had short pink hair and red nails.

Spirit answered while Kami went and put Maka back into the cradle. The peace didn't last long howeve.

"Dear sister!" someone shouted from the doorway. Kami was in the kitchen and didn't seem to realize the commotion in the living room until she heard a familiar voice screaming.

"What's wrong?" she asked and stepped out from the kitchen, cleaning her hands on her apron. But her eyes went wide when she saw the scene unfolding before her.

"My dear sister…" the witch they saved cried while holding a body that was missing its lower part. Now it was Kami's turn to scream and back against the wall. Spirit seemed to be in shock too but spoke to his wife.

"Calm down! Oh God, please, don't panic," he shouted and tried to erase the obvious ominous thoughts from Kami's head. His own head was a mess. The ash blond hair fell freely down as she clutched her head at both sides and started arguing with her husband.

"N..No..No! I said we're going to get it! It's never a good thing to help witches and now we're going die because of you! The warlords will not forgive treason!" she shouted at Spirit, who seemed dumbstruck. Kami had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Now don't blame me when you were the one who stepped aside!" The argument just got worse. Spirit and Kami were bickering at each other, the witch was crying, and Maka slept in her cradle. Babies tend to sleep well when they're really tired.

Suddenly another person leaped in. This witch's eyes were in pure panic and her right side was bleeding. No one knows what would have happened if the witch would have ran into the forest and continued instead of going to the cabin, but it's not important. As it is, this quirk would create another path for a girl, one that strayed far away from her original, the one with a mother and father.

The bat witch smiled in hysteria, clutching her dead sister's torso.

"Marmona you're ali-!"The happy yell was interrupted when the bat witch and the one who had come in were stabbed to the front and scarves broke their backs and bones. It was quiet. Now three bodies lay on the floor of the house and blood stained the walls. Kami couldn't even utter a sound, her hand covering her mouth which was threatening to spill her breakfast.

The almost closed door opened and (it was an old door and tended to close itself when no one was holding the handle) a tall man stepped in, his face completely covered in scarves, bedecked with thin eyes (except for a few locks of hair which stuck out in places). He was wearing a wine red coat with black stripes that's zipper was partially opened, revealing at least 5 or 6 layers of other shirts. His hands also had three vertical eyes tattooed on them. He was slightly covered in blood. Notorious as he was, Asura was immediately recognized. Spirit looked more horrified than when their guest had been killed in front of him.

Kami could smell burnt wood and corpses on the man.

'_One of the warlords…' _Spirit thought very slowly as he tried to process the information. Kami looked like she was about to faint, tears still streaming down her eyes.

Asura raised his hand lazily and shot a beam from the weapon he held in it. One of the corpses was smoking now, almost nothing left of it.

"Kami RUN!" Spirit shouted at his wife, but at that moment the supposedly dead witch, whose body was torn in half, threw itself onto Spirit, and when Kami went to get it off it was already starting to possess her husband with magic.

"SPIRIT! Oh dear god, let go of him!" Kami shouted to the witch, who was almost complete with her possession ritual. Kami was absolutely horrified.

"Please dear Lord! Help us!" Kami begged the tall man in the doorway, but as quickly as she had said that, she felt a shot and then something warm started streaming down her down, dumbfounded, Kami raised her hands in silence.

"Y..You're supposed to help humans. This is-" Her knees betrayed her and she fell onto the floor, gasping.

Spirit screamed while he still had his own mind when he saw how his wife fell at the hands of a warlord.

A red beam enveloped all the people, and there was a great explosion.

* * *

It was a nice day outside. The birds weren't singing, and there was no one to stab you in the back. Asura looked at the cabin through the scarves around his head and sighed. It was in ruins. Some of the walls were destroyed, and the floor was covered in small rocks. Not to mention the fact that it was also painted red with blood and there were five stinking corpses in there. But they were burned, beyond any help, charred black. Not even regeneration could save them now.

He had always been very throughout. Asura snorted when he turned towards his partner.

"Well the mission is complete, so I'm leaving," Vajra stated, and started walking down the deciduous tree alley back to the village where he could at least get a horse carriage to _home._

Asura lingered behind. He stared the retreating form of his partner and then at the cabin. The sunlight came through the leaves again and now it was pointing at one place specifically.

"Could it be_?" _he asked himself, but dismissed the thought. No way was he going to find a Buddha sitting there even though that would have been appreciated. The man could have taught him how to calm his thoughts and fears. He walked up what had once been stairs and they scrunched under his footsteps. The almost insane man sat on one of the crumbled walls and stared the canopy, grimacing when the light came through his scarves. Yes, he felt completely at ease…

Relaxing like this wasn't so bad either. He decided to try to sleep just a bit before he had to return—it wasn't like anyone would be waiting for him to come back anyway.

Asura's life took a very threatening turn the moment his ears picked up crying not far from where he sat. He had no idea how the encounter would change the life he had.

"Do corpses cry now, too?" he mumbled to himself, thinking that the witches were some crazy people if they managed to cry in death. He stood up and walked to where he heard the crying and arrived at the half-destroyed room. The blood on his clothes didn't seem to tick him off all and he kept searching when he noticed a cradle.

As said, the light shone upon Asura, and the cradle in the dark was the source of the noise. The first thought he had was that it was a monster or another witch trying to trick him, so he stood on guard before walking closer. Because it was too dark to see with the scarves, he opened them and raised the blankets on top of a...

_´An…infant?´ _He raised one of his nonexistent eyebrows and held the kid up. She stirred and stared into the blood red eyes, and was suddenly, fully awake but no cries escaped her mouth for mommy and daddy. She just stared, her mouth agape, and her bright green eyes full off curiosity.

Asura stared at it. The scant hair on top of its head, the pudgy fingers, the awful smell coming from it. Everything that was associated with this creature was bad, lower grade than he was used to. He looked sideways, looked up and down, pondering on this and yet his gaze returned to the child in front of him. She was now an orphan and already dead. Her mother couldn't feed her any longer and he'd never had the emphathy for any of this.

"I'm being sagacious," He reached for her, this child who shoud be killed. No one would take care of it, it'd die in the end. Her hand trailed his fingers, Asura was feeling calm as his fingers touched her neck. She gurgled and he felt her chest heave with another breath.

_´You'll thank me later.´_

**R&R**


	2. The orphan

In case someone doesn't know it, Maka's about 3 months old. She spend the joyous 3 months with her parents until big bad man came and killed them D;

* * *

The Empty Cradle

_2. The orphan_

Far away from big cities and masses of people in the mountain range (if you could call them mountains) was a small village. Although it was no longer a village as there was already told that every human in there was killed.

It was pretty normal since there were bandits that liked to burn the houses and kill the people, and it really wasn't surprise neither that the bodies were left to rot in the sun who grimaced at their smell. There was a horse carriage coming over to the bloody land. Oh it could've been a nice trip to a peaceful city if thousands and blue souls weren't hovering up and down in the air, just few meters above the ground.

The farmer that was coming was whistling and had hay in his mouth. He looked happy and the horse that pulled the wooden carriage full of salt looked just content with its job but was still a bit disturbed by the smell coming off from the village.

Actually the farmer would have a hell of a day that would end up pretty absurdly. He had just reached the village centre and the hay dropped from his mouth. He eyed the place suspiciously.

_`So is this star clan's doing or bandits..?´_ He thought waywardly raised his straw hat and eyed the grounds suspiciously.

"Hey."

"ARGH!" the man shouted, scared and heart almost jumping out from his chest, quickly turned to his side to face the stranger who spoke. How in the bloody hell had he (because in no way was something this tall a woman even though the stranger was squatting.) managed to sneak on the carriage, onto the rider's seat without the farmer noticing.

"Take this baby." Asura said and offered the farmer a child (obviously Maka) who had been tucked inside a blanket for her to remain warm. Why was the soon to be Kishin trying to get the brat off from him instead of just killing him? It was kinda hard to lie to Shinigami about the amount of souls that had to be killed and this girl wasn't on his dead list but the, villagers weren't neither but who cares. If he could get his hands off this annoying baby then it was worth it. Maka was just looking like a snowman, not having a clue of what's going on. It looked like the evil man was trying to give her away. Of course after being taken away from her home to much farther away than mommy ever took her, she was being very giddy. The evil man had done a strange thing to an old man when walking to this place, doing something and then there was red everywhere. Maka didn't know what the red thing was but it got stuck on her face. The man had tried to scrub it off but that just hurt and Maka began to cry.

Asura got so annoyed by the loud sound that he left the small Maka on one of the corpses. As the baby watched the retreating form of the warlord, she started to make weird sounds but only could make small incoherent babbling and puking sounds.

That really resulted in puking and soon she found herself smelling pretty bad.

"Take it or leave it." Asura repeated not being anything but slightly vexed and he wanted to kill someone quickly. Maybe that Japanese fellow, what was his name again….Mogen? Something like that, really not important but the other warlord was better than some random peasant.

"Are you abandoning your caretaker duties?" The man, dubbed random peasant, shouted not wanting to believe what he had heard. "That's the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard in my whole life! You youngsters and your hormones…"The peasant sighed," Really if you're ready to pin a woman under you then you should be ready for a kid."

And here the warlord had had enough. He took Maka back and jumped off from the riding seat and glared the peasant through his scarves. If he just Vajra hadn't gone before he…in fact what did it matter. There were plenty of creative ways to finish this old man off.

Babies tend to sense people's ever changing temperaments and because the murder intent coming off from the bad man, Maka started to squirm uncomfortably. Luckily it was over before she started to cry. The warlord saw the bloody body that he had broken with his scarves land with a silent thump. The horse panicked slightly and started running back to where it came from with the carriage. Now there was no man or whip with it though.

How dare he say that he was a father to this…undignified brat? How the hell was he now responsible for the child when god knows maybe this girl's father pinned the mother down and then the poor woman had no choice but to marry the good-for-nothing husband? how could he even mistake him for the baby's father. They didn't even look like the same!

Asura strode off and squeezed himself to fit from the narrow alley between few houses, putting his hands up and then the baby too. He walked sideways until the alley ended and once again, the baby was comfortably in his arms. Asura had actually no idea how to hold a baby but since it wasn't complaining then he wasn't going to change anything.

Except maybe he should wash it. It kinda smelled after the puking.

The closest water source was the river about few yards away from the last village house. The water was a bit muddy but grown up men don't care about unnecessary things like that. If it was water it should very well clean some dirt off from you and the warlord had already decided that a muddy baby was better than a baby dipped in puking. Maka wasn't so happy about the man's logic since suddenly she was just put under the water. Almost immediately she had been drawn up and that resulted in series of baby coughing and puking muddy water from the mouth and nose. Maka began to cry again.

_´Aaa it's noisy…´ _Asura put the baby under water again. It was absolutely a miracle that Maka didn't die in the process since Asura absolutely refused to touch the vomit with his bare hands nor his scarves.

"A…aaaa!" Maka sniffed and cried big tears when she was out of water. The man proved some kindness when he patted her back making her puke rest of the water out. After the ridiculous process the baby started to shake badly. Now even though it was a warm summer, being soaked in the river and almost dying, Maka was very cold.

"Aa-a. It's starting to die…" Asura sighed apathetically. Even after all he had done this ungrateful thing decided to leave the world of desires. He decided to do something before that happened because Asura viewed himself somewhat generous. The baby's eyes were closing and Maka as almost falling asleep.

There was no clothing nearby because Asura had to abandon the old ones because they smelled. The baby was a little brown because the river but you could easily rub off the dirt with fingers when it dried.

As if sensing what the man was doing, and Asura had squatted so that he could see behind his scarves the baby's face. The man was about to raise her to his arms again when Maka's tiny little hand took a hold of one of the man's fingers.

Asura seemed to be completely caught off guard by the act and quickly yanked his finger free from the powerful grip. He looked the (obviously the baby was a girl without anything to cover by) baby girl and tried to find something that would've signaled that as a threatening act.

In the mean time Maka had started to articulate vocals incorrectly. The only ones she got right were, A, O and U. She was cold and she wanted back to the bad man's arms. The man's chest radiated warmth and was comfortable with many clothes on.

"Aaa…aaa."

"What?" Asura quoted, somewhat irritated. He still hadn't gotten over the slight touch the baby performed. Was that normal for them? In fact, he had to wonder how in the world he knew it even was a baby. What if it was a witch trying to act all sweet and then finish him off (not that she could).

The man was in the way of warm sunlight but Maka didn't know it was warm, just thought it was annoyingly bright light that almost blinded her.

_´Isn't there anyone alive here?´_ Asura asked himself after executing extremely annoyed face in his mind though his outer face remained passive. He really didn't have to hide his face when he didn't almost have expressions…

"Maybe I give you to Eibon. He wanted a kid." The soon to be Kishin reminded himself briefly not noticing the small hand creeping to touch him again. He was still squatting but now his head was resting on his arm and the other was normally heaved on top of his tight and he was staring the skies, earning Maka just enough solitude to carry out her little task and when he reached the man's hand again, this time she took more powerful grip so that he would not escape.

Asura was in his thoughts so Maka's tactic maneuver only made his suspicion about her being a witch strengthen. Once again Asura tried to yank his hand free, only this time unsuccessfully. It might have had something to do with the baby shaking but perhaps if he gave her his coat then she would let go.

Sacrifice to a local brat.

Except now he noticed his perfect coat had a little blood stain on it. Inwardly he cursed. Outwardly he just stared the coat with unreadable expression. He was brought back to earth again when Maka started giggling. Asura stopped stripping and watched with grave eyes what was so funny. When the giggling continued and Maka let go of his hand to touch something even more interesting that had been swinging behind the bad man all this time. Asura was lost for a second and Maka stopped giggling too. He was now gravely confused and looked behind himself if there was someone there. There wasn't. He felt his irritation grow and Maka started giggling again. When Asura turned to look the baby once more he saw her trying to get up. He frowned and his scarves swayed left and right with his irritation.

Wait a minute his scarves! Being surprised by the discovery the pieces of clothing (or his skin) stopped moving and Maka was staring owlishly again.

"You like them…" Asura muttered under his breath and started moving them closer to the baby. Maka thought it would nice to be able to touch them and reached out, feeling the material. It was soft and very, very comfy looking. The older man thought the baby was no witch at this moment. He started moving his other scarves again, not the one in the baby's grip of course, and they went up and down. Maka reached out with her other arm and just as she was about to touch them again, the clothing moved up.

It continued for a while, one doing it just out of curiosity, one wanting to feel the textile, but then Maka sneezed. He might have then remembered that she was a creature that required warmth at the moment so Asura, staring down with all his grace, wrapped his scarf around the baby and took her into his arms again. She seemed content because she didn't struggle and started sleeping pretty quickly.

But there was still the question of what to do with her?

For now it really didn't seem quite likely that she would be staying with her parents or any other human than him. He could leave her to starve of course or even better, leave her out for the animals to eat.

But now there was the matter of Eibon. The scientist loved children and had discussed Shinigami with severely occasions that he would like to have a child but because his wife was sick, he couldn't.

Maybe the scientist wouldn't mind to have one now would he?

* * *

**I'm sorry if Asura's behavior seems too odd to you but be assured he is the same paranoid bastard as ever. I'm not going to change that. He just doesn't have much to fear in a presence of a baby who he could kill by snapping its neck, so yeah. Infants are not in his "fear this" list. Nasty list, very nasty…**

**R&R**


	3. Baby steps

The Empty Cradle

_3. Baby steps_

The place where the warlords resided was cold and it really wasn't the most suitable playground. The lone warlord eyed around a bit for the others but it was for naught for they had yet to return. Asura wandered around and wondered where Bashura was, for he had yet to see his partner come up and greet him. The child seemed content being huddled in his arms and the man took a little pride in keeping her quiet. The journey here had been pleasant. The baby sometimes woke up but only went ´ooh´ and ´aaa´ when they flew over mountains and landscapes. The warlord was quick to arrive because he was using his red magic circles that had the eye pattern printed on them.

Asura eyed the surroundings once more and jumped on top of the candle wall before sitting down onto his own reserved spot. The little tug of landing made Maka wake up and she rubbed her eyes and looked around. The green eyes immediately landed on her bad man and she was incredibly glad that she wasn't left behind like her mother and father had done.

"Mm?" the man hummed, leaned against one of the candles and curled himself so that he would be very comfortable for the baby. The infant was tightly between his legs that were not touching his chest but were close anyway and the said warm and soft torso. Babies liked being in tight spaces or at least that's what he had heard.

They waited about fifteen minutes and after that, the warlord got annoyed and anxious. He was alone in their little candle graveyard, baby cooing in his arms and he himself...well slightly disturbed. Maka didn't seem to mind the change of scenery and moved her eyes, eying everything and finally after a while, trying to touch the ground. The movement was small and she reached for the white wax floor eagerly. The bad man seemed to notice her frantic efforts to get free and without any troubles, laid her onto the ground.

"Do not eat it." Asura commanded after Maka was trying to put a piece of wax inside her mouth. The baby's drooling mouth was disgusting to watch and Asura couldn't comprehend how did women find toddlers cute. The baby seemed frantic trying to do something since it was laying on its stomach and was now...well it actually tried to crawl. The older man didn't like her movements too much and used one of his scarves to put the kid on the other side of his own little kingdom (his own reserved spot) and Maka stared wide eyed as she was being transported through air. She came down on all fours and sat down, looking her small chubby hands and after a while started biting them with her gums.

Asura was busy mumbling to himself that everything was alright since he had another insecure moment.

* * *

His internal disgust for the toddler was growing at a enormous rate. The moment he lets his guard down the baby somehow crawled right next to him and started eating his scarves. The moment he took that it wanted company and took it in his arms again, it started drooling on him like a maniac. The man even tried to hold it in the air but the kid was quite heavy (not that he couldn't handle her. He just wouldn't waste straining his muscles for such a thing as her.) and the moment she started reaching out to pull his hair that stuck from the bandages around his head, Asura had finally had enough.

"Oh I'm lumping you with that scientist the moment he comes here..." Asura mumbled but didn't curse. No, cursing was bad for both of them and someone had said that if you curse, your mouth would have to be washed with soap and he really didn't want soap's taste in his mouth now. Maybe next year or then maybe not.

Maybe he should just shut up and stop thinking.

"aaa...!" the girl whined and stared him with needy eyes. Being right next to him he heard her quite well.

"What?" Aura managed to grump out but didn't turn his head to face the baby. It obviously took this as a horrible insult since it crawled in front of him and started advancing and maybe, maybe if it had been a little stronger and brighter and Asura hadn't been pushing it away with his scarves, Maka might have actually reached him. "I don't want you anymore..." the man grunted and turned his back at her. Obviously the warlord thought that babies were something you could just throw away if you didn't happen to like them.

Maka pronounced the vowels she had been pronouncing since they left that god forsaken village and started to slam her tiny little hands against the bad man's hard back. Little tears were brought into her eyes when no reaction was found.

"Aaaa!..aauu..!" she pulled his scarves and tried to make the bad man look at her.

"Uuuuu..." It almost seemed like she would start crying but then a loud rumbling sound came from her stomach. Maka was quiet for a while and then she stopped hitting the bad man. The infant looked keenly her hands and then her lower lip started trembling. Little tears came from her eyes as a loud sound echoed in the warlords' candle world and it didn't stop.

"QIUET!"

Asura didn't usually raise his voice but now he was simply too annoyed to let this go. "Fine. I'll go get you something and then you'll be quiet. Stay there." The man said and quickly stood up and then went to some unknown direction. This surged a panic inside little Maka. Her tiny heart hurt at the sight of the man leaving like that. But...but wasn't the bad man going to sleep with her and play with her and take care of her and...

New tears sprung from her eyes and Maka cried so that her big emerald eyes were puffy and all red and until she finally fell asleep after few hours.

* * *

He wasn't up for this. Asura was so annoyed that he didn't even remember when he had been this annoyed before. Maybe never. Maybe it was just weeks ago. He didn't remember.

There were three eyed insects coming off from Asura's wavelength and the man identified them as his growing madness. The soon-to-be-Kishin had already consumed good amount of human souls behind the backs of his partner and companions. The insects moved suspiciously and climbed on top of their master's shoulders. The red eyed man didn't open the scarves around his head and still turned to look at them. They stained his coat with black goo or whatever it was. Maybe blood?

"Find some berries. I think the girl can handle them if you smash them."

The thick forest was dark as night embraced it. Different creatures roamed around but they avoided going near the man wrapped in scarves. Animals did have the sixth sense for danger after all.

In the forest there grew different kinds of mushrooms, berries, leaves, herbs and some very weird looking vegetables and root vegetables. Asura wasn't sure they were edible and didn't risk it by yanking them up.

The mad insects that had quickly morphed into red electric ones, were carrying different kinds of berries from blueberries to cloud berries. Asura wondered if there was a swamp near by.

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky or moon neither. There weren't any stars and the road Asura walked on was heavy and cold. The smell of humans lingered in the area and it was disgusting. He considered of taking their souls and letting his fear take the better of him but then he remembered the hungry baby.

Just up forward, leaning against a tree, just visible to the eye was a figure. She smelled horrible and her soul didn't look healthy neither. The warlord stared the sleeping woman for a while, noticing the unusual get up.

_´A witch...´_ Asura sighed in his mind and walked closer. It didn't bother him at all to rip her chest open brutally and take the soul in there. Soon the bloody body stopped breathing and Asura's hem of pants was covered in blood because it started pooling under him. The man eyed the woman for a while before noticing that few wild dogs had gathered around and were growling at him. Now he could have easily just tossed them aside and go on or then kill them but his eyes were glued onto the book the witch was carrying.

_Witchcraft and Wizardry, _was the title.

The worn book was gently pulled away from the dead pale hands of the woman and Asura stood up. His little electric bugs were on his shoulders now and they were eying the dogs suspiciously.

He got this funny idea when walking back _home._

* * *

They had their problems but they got by.

It was Asura's third week as Maka's surrogate caretaker and he had to say, he had gotten used to it. The long time the others were gone (Which he had to wonder what were they doing since when all of them went into one place it couldn't take so long could it?) he had developed a sleeping rhythm that allowed him to be awake when the baby was crying or playing or just being there, staring him...

The food he left for his humble servants (if that's what you could call them) and as usually, he barely ate anything. Maka's drooling had worsened and when Asura tried to find reason to that, he found two white little things sticking out from her gums. Her first teeth were beginning to develop.

The only worrying part of this was that the infant's skin was slightly beginning to change color from cream to some unhealthy orange. It also must have hurt if when Asura touched her arm, she started crying out loud and even if he didn't press at all, there appeared two bruises on her arm. The girl's hair wasn't silky any longer and that was quite worrying. Shouldn't girl's have silky long hair?

"What's wrong with you?" Asura whispered to the sleeping child in his arms.

A slight sound right next to him brought the warlord back to his senses. His hair almost rose up as the creeping wavelength penetrated his senses completely. Outwardly the man showed hardly any change and didn't flinch when he recognized the wavelength as a witch or more correctly, witch queen. Maka squirmed a little and opened her small eye but didn't say anything or move. She didn't feel safe.

"Where are the rest of the pests?" Mabaa asked feeling very irritated. She was holding, _Advanced Spatial Magic & Inner core magic Vol.3._

All in all the creepy hag looked very scary in her almighty gigantic safety pins and the Grey pointy hat which had a grimacing face with red eyes on it. The black cape/cloak really added to the feeling and the authoritative aura was just ticking Asura off.

"No witches allowed here. It's written on one of the candles on the western side."

"I don't fancy sarcasm at the moment. Now tell me where they are and pray god if I made a visit for nothing..." Mabaa threatened, her both eyes still intact and the magical circles in them started to gleam green, "...and get those awful scarves off from your face. I want to see the face of who I'm talking to."

Maka decided then that she didn't like the witch and tugged Asura's red striped cardigan. The warlord's head turned to face the baby and he opened the scarves around his head, just like the lady wanted but not for the witch but for the baby. Maka's mood immediately brightened as the familiar red rubies stared her with clear apathy. A slight giggle escaped from her mouth and the infant started chewing the finger Asura offered her with her gums. Mabaa frowned and started walking forward, She had yet to see the baby and she highly suspected that the man was finally raving mad if he started giggling like that.

Suddenly it struck Asura like a lighting from a clear sky. Babies needed milk! The older man quickly turned his head towards the approaching witch but the sudden action put a halt to her plans.

"You're a woman are you not?" Asura asked and Mabaa's hat dropped slightly to the right side.

"Which part of a ´witch´ do you not understand foolish boy! Of course I'm a woman!" Mabaa shouted, feeling very insulted.

"Can you feed babies?" Asura asked again, more hopeful this time. He looked very expectant and Mabaa backed off a little.

"Cease this joke at once or I'll-" her sentence was cut off short when Asura moved his left leg and leaned back. Mabaa dropped the book she was carrying and this time her hat really did fall off revealing Grey hair and very, very perplexed black eyes that still held the magical circles.

A BABY eating the warlord's fore finger and drooling on his clothes and what was worse, he was HOLDING her with no disgust or what-so-ever. Mabaa could only stare in silence for few moments before her brains registered the words she said,

"I thought you warlords didn't have time to produce heirs...bouncing snakes, you have a heir!"

"What?" Asura was completely taken back by that! He didn't expect anyone to come up with such a ridiculousness, such a vulgar and insolent thought as that!

"Oh she has your bright eyes and your nose. Tell me when did you do it? When was she born?" Mabaa had quickly advanced and was now squatting and leaning over the surprised warlord and Maka stared with her green big eyes. Asura quickly moved Maka further away from himself with his scarves and glared the witch as if she was going to do something unexpected. So he had bright eyes huh? The baby pouted when it reached the ground. It seemed like her bad man and that black...thing were having a conversation but then why did her bad man look so troubled. Maka gathered up her courage, even thought the black thing looked very menacing and had a very, very creepy aura around.

She started crawling, having more than enough troubles, towards them. The black thing was just exclaiming something to her bad man man when she had advanced 30 centimeters.

"How can you say she's not yours! Oh I know, you're trying to make me not to tell the rest of the pests right? Really you just-became-fathers are so insecure about some things..." Mabaa sighed and massaged her temples while a devious smirk played on her lips. Asura looked absolutely horrified.

"Just take a look at her and say she reminds me again when she does not! She should at least have some eyes on her body!" Asura frantically pointed to the place where he had put Maka but then felt something crash against his legs. Both figures looked down and saw that the baby had crawled back. Asura looked even more horrified but Mabaa just smiled.

"There. That's the devil's proof for you." She took the baby up and Maka's mouth was hanging open, What was the black thing going to do to her! Asura looked slightly alarmed too and snatched Maka back. He backed off few steps because his master's words were too deeply carved into his head.

Never trust witches. Especially if they're interested in something you possess.

Asura might have gone completely nuts on the time he was with the baby but one thing he knew for sure: the baby was his. He found it, he caused it go orphan and now he was the father. No one else!

Mabaa mumbled something about over-protectiveness and started undoing her cloak and when it was off, she took her hat and book from the ground and she walked under one of the candles and sat down, leaning against it and putting her things next to herself. "Give her to me Asura." Mabaa stated with a voice that didn't hold any sort of maliciousness in it. The demon god looked very disturbed but then it looked the baby and she was staring the witch with interest if that's what you could call it.

"I think I can breastfeed one more baby for few months."

* * *

**AN: So Mabaa became Maka's wet-nurse. Did you see that coming? Well I did.**

**Review people please! I don't want this to end up like sideways that no one reviews D:**


	4. First word

The Empty Cradle

_4. First word_

It had been about a month. A month and still no sight of the other warlords. An insignificant month to Asura that only meant that he was getting thinner. The soon-to-be Kishin sneaked out from time to time to eat human souls and he could tell they were having their effect since his mentality was crumbling. He could feel it. Like the sweat prickling down from his forehead to the cheeks and then neck.

It had been a month since he had saved the human child that now lay in his arms and watched him think. The man would've guessed that it was the baby's hobby since it did stare him a lot nowadays. Maybe the thing he had heard about babies having the sixth sense was true. Maybe she could feel the madness slowly taking over and this only made Asura's paranoid personality worse.

Mabaa watched as the days went by as she was only present about an hour a day because of Maka. Asura absolutely refused to come out of the candle land to Mabaa's little cottage to spent time since he didn't know when his companions would return from their trip. The thought that they would find him living with a witch was horrifying since Asura didn't think his mind would be able to handle it. Of course he was more powerful than the rest of them but there was only one problem in, ´_kill them all and run_´ plan. A problem called Shinigami. He would be able to leave the baby with the witch and that's that, but if he met Shinigami on his way somewhere he would be...let's not even talk about it.

Mabaa cooed at Maka who was now warily drinking her breast milk and from time to time eying her bad man. He seemed to be in so much pain and even Mabaa was getting slightly anxious around the warlord, not being sure if he would jump at her or just mumble incoherently.

"I think you should stop eating them." Mabaa said on one day. The same sunny skies as they had been all week were present and Asura just went through the "_fairy tail_" book he had stolen.

"Whatever are you talking about?" the man answered, not really acknowledging that Maka was playing with his moving scarves.

"The souls you idiot. I can feel your wavelength wavering and madness consuming your mind. If you want to get more powerful I could recommend you few magic rituals. They don't use human souls." Mabaa tried to reason with the warlord who just snorted. She was standing few feet away from the man and waving her arms while trying to use theory to succeed.

"No."

"Why not? They have their risks but at least they won't drive you mad."

"No. They're magical. Only _witches _perform those things."

"And pagans, and sometimes Christians, and few humans and-That's beside the point! Look at her!" Mabaa pointed her finger almost accusingly at Maka who chewed Asura's scarf. The said scarf didn't move and appeared to be playing dead.

"What about her?" Asura asked and raised his nonexistent eyebrow. The dark circles under his eyes were more visible than ever.

"What do you think happens to her if you turn into one of those drooling and brainless monsters? You didn't think about huh. Well you'll have to give her back to the humans." Mabaa hissed with venom, her eyes glowing green from the spatial magic circles in them.

Asura flinched.

His scarf wrapped around the baby who seemed surprised since the scarf should have been like the bad man's victims (dead) since she bit it! Traitors! Maka pouted angrily.

The warlord didn't seem to like Mabaa's choice of words at all. He angrily went on all fours and looked like an angry cat, no...a furious animal who she had scared.

Mabaa quickly raised her arms up in defeat, she didn't want to scare anyone at the moment and she definitely didn't want to be considered as a threat to Asura.

"Leave us now! You proved yourself unworthy of our presence." Asura hissed with even more venom than Mabaa had. The scarves moved around the man as if ready to attack while Maka had been safely tucked under the man and arm wrapped around her.

"Just consider what I said..." Mabaa tried but was forced to back off when a little of the growing madness was accidentally spread across the area.

"ASURA! You fool!" Mabaa shouted and backed off. "Do you realize that this wavelength stays in the soil and air? The other warlords will surely notice the change and question you!" Mabaa shouted. She wasn't going to take care of the baby if her caretaker was dead or mad. Asura seemed completely calm around insanity and it almost looked like the madness made him more calm in one way usually but now he would be willing to use it as a weapon against the witch queen. The red aura spread wider and eyes seemed to bleed out from the roof and the floor was having a liquid like quality.

"Think about her. It was you who took her and killed her normal future." Mabaa ended her speech and started walking away. The madness was once again absorbed into Asura's soul but he did it too fast. The man fell on the ground coughing and gripping the coat in when trying to claw his chest.

It hurt more than he would have thought.

Falling to the support of only one arm, Maka's little blabbering reached his ears. The wide and scared red eyes landed onto the baby who was pulling his hair violently. Asura's head tipped a little when a powerful tug came and he fell down, almost on top of Maka but made it just in time to move her against his chest.

Suddenly the previous anxiousness was gone replaced by another feeling.

A feeling called tiredness.

Maka drooled a little onto his coat but the man didn't seem to care at all. He offered her a finger to chew before she started biting anything else. The tiny little teeth were already beginning to pop out and if Asura moved his index finger among the gums, he could feel the bumps and peaks of the first teeth.

"Don't cry now." he whispered and slowly the red eyes closed only to drift into the much-needed slumber. Maka looked up to see the rise and fall of the chest and the puffs of air that escaped from the man's mouth. She decided that it was not bad if the bad man wanted to sleep a little so she resumed to chewing his index finger instead.

* * *

"Pull back! Pull back!" Shinigami shouted in the middle of the battlefield. He was guarding Eibon who was on his knees on the ground, looking very defeated. His robes were tattered and bloody and in front of him was a child. A dead child.

"Shinigami-sama we have to fight while we can!" Mugen shouted while slashing through the enemies with his sword. Excalibur, the young blond who used a sword was painted red by the blood and suddenly, the mud under his feet made him slip. The man watched horrified as one of the witches aimed a curse at him and it hit. His right arm was completely broken and there was blood dripping from the open wound on his head. Shinigami watched as the other warlords were struggling to maintain the defense but the witches' numbers were only increasing.

"No! I forbid you to continue this meaningless fight. We're going to retreat!" Shinigami ordered as he took Eibon's arm and supported the injured warlord and started flying away, being followed by the rest of the men. Mugen slashed through one more and then retreated feeling very reluctant.

Who knew that this mission would end up so deadly? They were just fighting pre-kishins and then suddenly a witch army came from nowhere. Shinigami had said they were deserters because Mabaa wasn't there among them and said they had probably escaped from the witch community because doing something they should not have done.

How this is all related to Eibon?

Some of the ´witches´ were only disguised or under an illusion so that it looked like they were witches but in reality they were just children, picked up from the streets and turned into an army. Of course before any of the warlords knew about this, even lord death, they had already killed at least half of them and as soon as a dead child's body fell on top Eibon, the man went into such a state that it was horrifying to watch. He bellowed and let his wavelength smash few pre-kishins and it took a long time before Shinigami had managed to at least stop his friend from destroying things. The lifeless eyes of the child would forever haunt the human loving warlord, Shinigami just knew it.

They would need to return to the candle room and re-think their strategy, because it seemed like more people were dying, more witches being deserted for some reason and more pre-kishin eggs were coming into being.

* * *

If Asura had known that his voice could do such a miracles as stop the baby from crying, stop it from eating wax all the time (and he had to wonder how could she still eat real food when her stomach should be full of wax) he would have started reading the book to the baby long time ago.

Maka was comfortably sitting on his lap and listened as Asura read the _Witchcraft &Wizardry._ It wasn't really a story book one would read for not even a year old baby but Maka didn't seem to have a problem. It got nice pictures anyway.

"You have to draw a magic circle to be able to communicate with earth and practice different levels of magic. This circle is recommended for the beginners in paganism or for witches who just start performing spells..." Asura read and watched the normal geometric circle that had a small six point star just little above the middle of the circle. It also had small stars drawn between each points, making 6 small stars. The circle had inner circle and two outer circles and there were some scribbles between the two outer- and the inner circle. There was also some writing beneath the star inside the circle. Maka watched it with amazement. As there was a picture of a witch summoning from the circle and a gigantic green lady came out. Asura continued reading and soon it became clear that it was the mother nature.

Asura stopped reading when Maka started drooling over the pages and he put her onto her grounding place. It had come to existence when Maka tried drool into sleeping Asura's mouth, which he wasn't so joyful to share with Mabaa. The baby watched the never-ending landscape of iron grave posts and crosses, candles that had writings on them as if them being all the laws in the world and there really were many candles.

Asura closed the book and put it into a crack he had carved into his own candle. There was a small piece that he removed, put the book in there and put the piece of wax back. All he had to do was to watch that Maka didn't eat the wax away.

The warlord seemed the baby worth one more glance and when he had confirmed that everything was okay, he jumped down from the candle wall and started walking out.

* * *

Outside was no different than it had been the whole month. It was summer, it was sunny and it was hot. All the factors for slightly uncomfortable really since Asura preferred weather slightly cloudy and dark. Even rain was welcomed.

Should he really stop eating souls as the witch queen had suggested? Maybe. He really didn't want to become one of those brainless monsters Shinigami was so keen of getting rid of.

But it really was more of a reflex and habit than any urge to kill a human if it walked too close. Of course Asura would the put the tasty (even though they usually didn't have any taste but he liked to think they did) soul into his mouth and enjoyed the feeling of it sliding down his throat.

There were usually villages near the candle land since people liked to think that the warlords would protect them if they were close.

The inhabited the temples that should have remained empty, the meadows were turned to fields full of wheat, rye and crops. Humans also liked to cut down trees.

He just couldn't imagine Maka living with these creatures anymore.

First, the girl ate wax not crops, she liked him while others did not (well that wasn't surprising) and she didn't like crowds. (This had been proven when few days ago Asura took her for a little walk, of course he carried her, and they went into one city as the man tried to find someone to take her with no luck. Maka had cried at least ten times that day and it all happened in the city.)

Asura stopped dead on his track.

´Is it my imagination or am I becoming attached to that brat?´ He thought hard and pondered the consequences if it really was so. While pondering Asura didn't really notice the _reflex _that made few souls roll to his feet.

The baby sometimes calmed his growing insanity so if he kept it and ate souls, he would get more powerful and he would remain in control and not become a senseless killer! What a brilliant idea.

Asura didn't show it on his face but he was quite happy with the outcome of his thinking. The white scarves quickly took all the souls on the ground and headed back to the candle land.

* * *

Maka was snoring at the grounding corner when Asura jumped up, just in time to see the baby wet its pants. Mabaa had conjured some kind of clothing wrapped around her lower region if she needed to answer nature's call. Although touching the wet cloth felt disgusting, Asura reluctantly pulled it off and sloppily wrapped another around her waist but then remembered that she needed to wash herself. The witch had warned him not to do it with cold water, nor muddy, nor polluted, nor try to test if she could drown. Mabaa had been outraged when Asura had bluntly told her that he just put her into the river.

The closest river was just running through the village but it would be highly suspicious if he went there now, daytime, and went to wash a baby. Not only would it attract attention but also jeers and stupid people. In other words: Asura would definitely lose his reputation.

Maka wasn't waken up by the action and was still snoring on the ground. In the end Asura decided to conjure some of his eye bug servants to get some water.

"Ask for some jar or anything to put it in." he ordered and pointed the way out. The bugs left immediately but unfortunately got lost somewhere in the village and were troubled.

Some nice man noticed them and remembered that he had seen those kind of eyes before. Before he could remember they were clinging to his legs and trying to take the bowl from his hands that had apples in it. The man frowned, squatting and taking the apples to a different bowl and gave the bugs the tin one.

The red eyes immediately ran towards the river and filled the bowl to the brim.

Asura was now bullying Maka in the candle land before his servants came back. The baby wasn't so happy about being washed because the traumatic first experience but approved anyway.

Now that they had used all the water (half of it wetting Asura) and Maka had her cloth wrapped around her again, she giggled like babies should so Asura decided that now would be the perfect time to start speaking to himself while watching Maka play with the bouncing blue souls, sometimes chewing them sometimes just rolling and hugging them.

"Do you know what a Kishin is?" Asura asked and crossed his legs and sat down. Maka raised her head but only giggled when one soul brushed against her back.

"Did you know that Kishin is made from madness and countless of human souls. Kishin's a bad thing, you should never become one." Asura stated nonchalantly and true to his word, no human could handle the transformation.

"there are usually eight of us here if you count the weapons out." Asura changed the subject. Maka stared owlishly as Asura stole her playing partner and ate it like it was nothing. "One of them is really scary. It's the black one. He's really mean and would kill me if he saw what I'm doing now." Asura smirked and put one of the souls on top of Maka's head where there was hair. Just a little and it was so soft that Asura understood why some women liked to pat their babies' head a lot. The souls wavered and Maka stared the bad man with wide eyes.

"I've got a partner. He's the one who helped me to kill your family although I did it mostly myself." Asura mused but viewed the subject as unimportant. Maka crawled towards the warlord, soul still on top of her head as if being glued.

"Guu...uuu."

"Yes, yes. I know but I killed your parents. I can't see any reason why you should be so dropped off from guard if babies have that word in their vocabulary." Asura watched the child climb onto his lap but collapse. It didn't raise itself up and decided to stay there, face buried in Asura's lap. The man watched the child with some interest.

"What am I to you?" He suddenly asked. Expecting the baby to answer Asura raised her up."We have been together for little over a month now so I want to know."

Maka stared her bad man. She didn't really understand what was going on. Reaching out, she grabbed a tousle of vertical eye hair and opened the little mouth.

"mam."

* * *

**When Maka says mam, she means mom. I just think that "a" would be pronounced more easily by a baby than "o".**

**If some of you are wondering about Excalibur, don't worry. I have made a story just for him and why he's now like that and the rest of the century...(Excalibur face)**

**I didn't re-read this so there might be some mistakes. I just want to give you an update :)**

**REVIEW!**


	5. My dear daughter, My dear mother

Empty Cradle

_5. My dear daughter, My dear mother_

"BWAHAHAHA!"

a glare was sent to the direction of the laugh.

"I-I can't believe it!"

Another glare, more intensified and a scarf was now choking and the laughter was still there. Almost dead, as was the person who laughed.

"Mam!" Maka shouted, although it sounded more like a ´bmam´ than mom but still. The meaning was there and if there was one thing Asura, the all-powerful warlord couldn't change, was the first word of the baby. No, not baby but an annoying little monster who absolutely had no idea what gender Asura was or then didn't care. Either way it was highly insulting and also very embarrassing. Maka didn't seem to mind though. She was keenly grabbing one of the scarves on the ground (not including the one strangling Mabaa), and trying to get her bad man's attention towards her. The baby couldn't have succeeded more well when the man turned his head and sent an irate snort and a glare towards the baby.

He received a smile as a thanks and some drool on the scarf as Maka happily started eating it.

Okay scratch that. The soon-to-be Kishin was fuming and aggressively pulled the victimized scarf away from the baby, away from the bloody mouth and away from her in general.

"L-let me go...n-now..." Mabaa choked out, her face already losing most of its color. Maybe it was an act for surely the witch queen was capable of destroying the scarf but what's the point when Maka would've just gotten angry at her and probably bitten Mabaa when she was feeding the little one. Now even with healing magic, that would've been nasty trick.

The witch queen was laid down as she went on all fours and started gasping for air. Partly because she still found the baby's choice of word funny, mainly for the air loss.

"You have no idea how long I have tried to fix that." Asura said grumpily and to avoid any comebacks of how he was a poor father and how it should be done, flew to the side of the candle to warm his hands which were quite cold despite it being full prestige summer.

"Fine! Be that way. I'll just take her and go out to get some fresh air."

All she got as a response was a grunt.

* * *

Maka was absolutely delighted to get out. She had been inside that "wasteland" for almost two weeks already and not even talking about how unhealthy it was, the boredom was killing the baby off even if she didn't know what to call the feeling.

Outside was sunny, as every other days, but there were few puffs of clouds that moved slowly and took interesting shapes.

The land the warlords resided in and they called it ´a home´ as no better word was found to describe the place, was white with candle wax all over and the sky was wine red. The letters telling laws were carved on the candles but they were black and weren't really a big joy for the eye to behold. Outside it was surrounded by mountains, river, very large forest area that seemed to go on and on. The small village was built just by the land of the lords for it provided protection and safety. The living conditions were great. You could smell the fresh air, sleep on the meadows and walk around the field, the sole field that held corn. The people believed gods resided in trees so they didn't chop down so many. Sounded old even though it was 13th century but still. Some traditions and beliefs die hard.

The village itself was small, not city but not so tiny. Fitting would have been the right word to use.

The houses were built of rock, wood and some roofs were a thatched roofs too. The structure reminded you of Switzerland, although it didn't exist at the time.

Many households also liked to have animal furs lined in front of their homes. They were so heavy that they didn't sway to and fro even when there was a strong wind. There were also few galoshes but the hunting equipment they kept indoors just in case.

The usual cheery air did some good to Maka as she watched the sellers do their jobs and every single person who was nearby wanted to buy food, nails, wood, herbs and so on.

It was very medieval.

"I'm sure you'd like to have that." Mabaa said as Maka reached for one item from the stall that was jingling. It was a small rattle, made of pinewood. It still smelled and had a little of resin on it but that didn't seem to bother the baby at all.

"Morning ma'am." The old man keeping the stall greeted the witch. "You must be one of the peaceful ones, huh?"

"I do not plan to start a war here. Anyway, how much?"

"hm?"

"The rattle." Mabaa pointed the wooden toy. Maka stared the old man with big eyes. The shadow cast by the stall protected her eyes from the burning sun. The scent of sweat was in the air.

"Oh that. Ten shillings and five pennies." The seller smiled and took the money Mabaa gave him from the little pouch she carried around. Witches didn't really have need for money but from time to time it was good to have some with you.

The wooden rattler was given to Maka who happily flung it around. She actually used it to attack innocent rovers so that Mabaa had to charm the rattle so that it wouldn't hit anyone and stayed in the hands of the baby.

Finally after walking awhile, Mabaa stopped in front of the river.

She eyed the baby crucially to see a reaction. Maka trembled and started crying a lot more whenever she got near water. The cause must have been the traumatic first bath that almost lead to death. Asura had no idea Maka was afraid of water since he didn't wash her or take anywhere near the liquid. But Mabaa did.

The witch queen had first noticed something was wrong when Maka started crying when she had tried to wash her and had bitten her with her gums. Even though it wasn't painful, the moment when Maka crawled away from the bath with wide eyes and started crying, had made the fear come to light. It had taken some time to get her to trust Mabaa again and somehow Asura was more than happy to point out how the baby got a ´nice sense of company´, since Maka chose Asura over Mabaa.

The witch had absolutely promised herself to kill him someday after all that taunting.

"Mam!" shouted Maka suddenly, startling Mabaa.

The older witch quickly clamped a hand over the baby's mouth to prevent her from shouting like that again. "Shh!" she put a finger over her mouth and stared worriedly around. Few merchants and builders smiled at her and started conversing about how well the baby was.

Now even though Mabaa was a woman, she didn't want people to think that the great witch had a child on her own. Of course these people hardly knew who she was but still.

"What's wrong?" Mabaa asked quietly. Maka seemed to understand pretty quickly since she quietly pointed towards the river, no longer trembling. Mabaa looked over the edge to see the surface of the water but nearly dropped the baby in the process.

There were red eyes on the water.

Asura's red eyes and the mark of insanity was embedded to the water, touching Maka.

Mabaa slid her hand over Maka's head and little shoulders to check if there really was something those spatial magic eyes didn't see.

It was only the reflection in the water however and it didn't go away.

"We should go," Mabaa said shakily. If this was what she though then Asura was going to get a little more than nagging for this.

* * *

Far away from the little village, located somewhere in the middle Europe, another Kishin facility was forced to shut down.

The humans had run out and the Kishin eggs were destroyed by their own madness. It was actually quite cruel to watch a woman bottle up the blood of the tainted human and cut off his arms and legs. The snakes on the drapes on the windows of the dark room where a dark ritual was taking place, watched. This level of black magic was hardly used because it left stain and stunk. The drapes were closed and on the floor there were serpent figures dancing and a magic circle to strengthen them. In the middle of the circle there were men and women, all looking quite dead. But they weren't.

"Damn," said a small voice. One of the humans, a girl, accidentally fell over and the light coming from the candles that lit up the room, showed the face. She was drooling, eyes back on her head and hair disarray. Her body had strange cuts and bruises and it looked someone had tortured her.

This was the dark side of witchcraft.

"Gently pass the salt please. Then hand over the water and the nails. You can use the hammer." The great lady said. In the corner, haunted by shadows sat a young girl. Despite it being stinky and anything else than comfortable she didn't complain.

Because Medusa never once complained to her mother about anything.

"Do we not need to summon the _Gorgot_?" Medusa asked in low voice. Her mother directed the her blue eyes towards the little child and smiled.

"No. Not this time. Humans will suffice and we do not want to clean up the mess afterward."

Medusa's expression didn't change but she stood up. A black cloak was around her and yellow serpents moved on the cloth. They were just ornaments and not real but from time to time, the child swore she could feel them squeezing her legs.

"Where's Stheino?" the mother asked. Now it is time to describe what she looked like. Like most Gorgon, (used to be Gorgoth) she had lightly tanned skin and slit pupils. The eyes were a marvelous shade of blue that had yellow sparks in them. The blond, very blond and almost white hair cascaded down. If you looked closer you could see a serpent tattoo on her left arm and magical bindings on the right one. She was once called _Euryale_, but those days were long gone. Her physical Structure reminded you of Arachne but slightly not.

The chemical pipes and bottles that held liquids, no human should touch were shimmering. Medusa walked into the circle, it shining bright red before calming down.

They nailed the fingers of the humans to the floor and then added the salt in the water, letting it be in the sunshine for a while and poured it on them.

The serpents inside the circle sprung to life as the circle started glowing bright red again.

"Mother!" The child showed a rare emotion of happiness in her tone as _Euryale _smiled.

"Yes dear child. It is working." she touched the surface of the circle with her long nails and they could feel the magic thrumming in their veins as they were inside the circle.

It granted them knowledge.

Whispered words were shoved into their heads and the circle spun faster and faster. Medusa grabbed both sides of her head, falling to her knees and grimacing in pain. She buried her head onto the cold stone floor. It looked like she could spasm at any minute now but a hand ascended to pat her head.

"Do NOT fear child. Or the magic's going to take you with it." _Euryale _said. She saw hastily how the warlords were walking away from the North and back here, South.

"_Oooh Yes I can see, I see them. My sweet little god and your warriors," Euryale _hissed like a snake but Medusa understood her clearly. She was her mother's creation not by blood but by magic and that is why she earned her name well. Medusa means queen after all.

"_They're coming slowly...One of them is more injured than the others...hm?" _Her brows furrowed, _"I do not see terror. There are only, knowledge, power, rage, order, grief, jealousy and...Vajra?"_

As the name left the lips of _Euryale, _three gigantic eyes spread open in to circle, startling her and Medusa.

"This is-!" but the mother was cut off when a powerful, very powerful wavelength swept into their bodies, forcing their minds open and all they could see were eyes. The building was shaking, boulders falling off from the roof crushing a few pieces of furniture. The older witch could feel some force being shoved right into her soul and her daughter had already passed out.

"E-Exitus!"

and the spell ended. Just like that. The circle burned away and soon there was no madness to take over. _Euryale _crawled over to her daughter and soothed the tears away. If what she had seen was right then Arachne would have some jobs to do.

* * *

"HOW COULD YOU!"

Asura covered his ears and Maka grimaced. It wasn't exactly nice to hear the old hag's screeching voice. The man lowered his head to watch the baby on his lap. The scarves were covering the head once again and Maka was facing down.

"I wanted to be sure,"

"YOU HAD NO RIGHT...!" Mabaa fumed and cut Asura off. The man was getting pretty irritated because this had lasted about twenty minutes. No wonder some feared this queen with might, but this was getting old and tiresome, quick.

"I wasn't sure you wouldn't do anything to her so I put in just a bit. It's nothing."

"NOTHING? Popping cauldrons it's something! Horrifying! How could you put madness wavelength from YOURSELF, NO LESS, into a baby just few months old! Have some shame!" Mabaa shouted. Asura was covering Maka's ears as the baby, quite irritated, chewed his toes.

"She doesn't look like she minds very much." Asura stated.

"She's a baby! She can't understand!"

"Ouch." Asura stated calmly again as one of Maka's growing teeth nibbled his toe a little harder. Mabaa growled loudly and turned her back to Asura.

"Men! You always do things your own way! Think of us, women who have to correct your mistakes!" the witch scowled. Right now the woman inside Mabaa was objecting Asura's doings very radically and things could get hazard soon if something wasn't done.

"I did not do a mistake," Asura raised his head and glared daggers at the witch. The silent battle between wills started and Maka started playing with bugs of madness that seemed to be reacting to Asura's ire.

"If you don't take it out from her right now, I'm canceling the truce between witches and you."

"I will not, _Mother." _Asura said with remarkable scorn.

Mabaa shook as anger overtook her sense away and she bluntly threw the book she was holding onto the ground. It hit the solid surface with a loud thud and Maka winced.

"You're scaring her." Asura said, "Cease your hostility this instant."

"Or else what? Are going to kill me?" Mabaa laughed as spatial magic cackled around her form, full of safety pins."How about you try to be a mother to that brat?" she asked but didn't really mean it as a question. Asura watched with caution, ready to rip off her throat if something threatening happened. Mabaa tucked a hand inside her black robes and pulled another book out.

"You know what this is?" seeing as he stayed motionless, the witch continued," It's the book of Eibon. This is my half of the book and it's still an incomplete version but I'm sure this will suffice."She cackled madly and opened the first page. Mabaa raised her hand right above the book and started chanting. Asura, holding Maka with his life (he still didn't know why she was so bloody important), was readying his scarves to attack. What had he been thinking! How could he have trusted a witch.

Before the warlord knew what was going on, a blinding white light enveloped him and Maka.

The baby's green eyes watched as something flew out from the book and into her bad man, but she couldn't see what.

"Let that be a lesson for you." Mabaa snorted and walked out from the candle land, taking her books with her.

Behind her there was a surprise for Asura. Something that would shock anyone, especially men if they were to go near.

Maka stared the woman in front of her while biting her own thumb.

* * *

**A/N**: Oh and I checked what currency they used in 13th century so don't point that out. Google knows everything. Yes I wanted to portray Medusa and Arachne's mother. So sorry if it seems too OOC to you, but it was needed. I can't go having child Medusa or teenager Arachne doing all the evil things can I?

Also, so sorry about that gender bender. I-I just had to do it. I had to!

1.)Gorgot is a a Greece monster, sex women and they have snakes as hair. Later they were reduced to gorgon.

2.) Euryale is one of the three mighty Gorgon. The two others are Stheino and Medusa.

_A Pound was divided into twenty Shillings, a Shilling into twelve Pennies and a Penny into four farthings. _

_A Tanner was six pennies and a Florin two Shillings. Five Shillings made a Crown and two hundred and fifty two Pennies a Guinea. _

_There were four Pennies in a Groat and a Half Crown was 2 Shillings and a Tanner. Half a Guinea was ten Shillings and a Tanner._


	6. The lesson about girls and boys

**NOTE: **Asura is a woman in this chapter but I'll not be referring to him as 'she'. He's a man at heart and I'll address him as one.

I wrote this chapter to be read as humorous in the soul eater world. The soundtrack would be, http : / / . com/watch?v=9mjO76qQ13g&feature=related (remove the spaces and yes I know it's not the original but this one is slightly funnier XD)

Oh, and I bring you this http:/ .com/wiki /Eight_Powerful_Warriors and then you must look the picture right at the end of the page, the one that shows Eibon, index and two other warlords. In this fanfic, Excalibur will look (even though that won't last, pfft) like the one in between Eibon and the Aboriginal. Like the Greek.

* * *

Empty Cradle

_6. The lesson about girls and boys_

This was the closest thing to a crisis he had had in his whole life. Would this mean that all the souls he had devoured would be nullified and the power they brought forth gone? No—he could feel them inside, screaming.

But why a woman?

Why was he transformed into a weak woman? Women were weaker than men, even in soul business. Witches were born with strong souls and they were women, but there were wizards, too. Now that Asura was a woman, how was he supposed to defend himself? Maybe he should cower behind Shinigami and be protected. He snorted at that.

Asura was now a woman – he had woken up a few minutes ago like that – and he swore that he didn't like it. The chest felt heavy and restrictive, and the baby girl just enjoyed grabbing it. He didn't know why, but it unnerved him.

"I'm going out for a bit. Wait right there," Asura said, and brushed his long hair away from his eyes. Maka gave him a little salute and stared her bad man. His scent had changed, too. Instead of that red thing (blood) and Asura's own little smell, he smelled like a flower shrub and it made Maka's nose cringe. The warlord stood up, and to his own misfortune stumbled on the hem of his trousers as they were now too long (since women are smaller than men). Instead of jumping down gracefully, he fell all the way to the bottom and face-planted firmly onto the ground.

Maka went over to the edge of Asura's candle territory and peered down. She gave the heap on the ground a dry look and blabbered nonsense.

_´It's a child. It doesn't know about murderous intent or anything even close to it. Don't kill it,´ _Asura repeated inside his head as a mantra and stood up. He patted his clothes, sweeping the unwanted dust off, and then started to leave.

"Daddy," Maka said with great melancholy from the top of the candle hill.

"AM NOT!" Asura shouted at Maka across the distance, and while he was at it, he raised his fist up. "Right after I'm done, I'm teaching you some things about gender!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and stared uncertainly up at her.

Maka waved happily and cooed, "da-da."

* * *

It was already bright noon when Asura emerged from the woods. He was dragging a few hundred blue souls behind him—brightening the forest immensely, the leaves and branches reflecting the blue light. He groaned, rubbing his back and sitting down. He had cleaned out a little market town just now and didn't really feel keen on doing more work. Most likely Asura would just eat the souls and take a rest afterward to prevent indigestion.

But when the first soul entered his mouth he gagged on it and spat it out, a trail of saliva connecting the blue soul and his mouth. Asura frowned and quickly wiped the trail away. He brushed few locks of hair away from his face. The long black hair was seriously starting to piss him off. Although, he felt he should give Mabaa some credit, since stealing souls in broad daylight had never been easier than after he had become a woman. No one really thought that she might be 'he'.

Asura discarded the soul – putting it next to himself but apart from the rest – and took another soul from the hovering lot. This one was young and very fresh. Had he killed kids too? Asura's frown deepened a little and he wondered how it would taste. He had only eaten souls of adults in order to have more power, but maybe the younger ones were better. Old souls that came from old people were dry and resilient, but some just after entering his mouth would pop and it would feel like chewing a balloon which had been popped by a needle. Not very pleasant.

Asura had almost thrown up last time he had eaten that kind of soul. Loopy souls were even worse.

The bright and young soul was in his hands. The warlord raised it right over his mouth and sucked it in.

It was slippery at first but then it melted into his mouth. The taste was all soft and addictive. Even when he swallowed it, the sensation of the soul going down his throat was pure heaven.

´_Except that I don't believe in heaven.´ _he added inside his head but looked apathetic outside.

Would the baby's soul – Maka - taste this good too?

Asura fell on his back in the long grass, the trees creating a nice shade. Maybe he should go deeper into the forest. Nah, there were those pre-kishins out there and they tended to steal the souls he had collected up till now, which he didn't like. He grabbed another hovering soul above him with his scarf and ate it.

He still didn't have any reason to raise the child that was waiting for him to come back. That bothered Asura a lot. In fact, it gave him sleepless nights even more now that-

Ah.

He had forgotten to read that magic book to the girl as a bedtime story. Well, now that he remembered it, he would do it today. She probably wouldn't understand a word, but when she grew older she would thank him, as he hadn't cooed or babbled incoherence at her but instead read useful texts.

The souls lessened until there were only few remaining, which Asura stuffed into his pockets as he would eat them later. His heartbeat quickened slightly and the man could feel something shift inside of him. This action alarmed Asura, so he quickly stood up. Danger...?

From behind a tree emerged a little child. Her face was shadowed by a hood that had eyes. Asura didn't know who this new factor was, but he knew one thing.

"A witch?" he asked himself. The scarves covered his head so the witch couldn't see his face, but she probably knew who he was from his wavelength, even though he was toning it down. The girl stayed in the shadows and it seemed like her eyes were glowing yellow.

"My name's Medusa. It seems as if the witch queen did quite a deal with you," the girl said as she analyzed his body. Asura would have asked her how to reverse the effect, but it didn't look like the girl knew anything. Before he had time to ask anything the girl threw a sack in front of him.

"It's a snack for you. But that's not why I came here. The rest of the warlords are returning, including your weapon. They'll be here in about two hours so be prepared," she gestured towards the souls and turned her back to him. Suddenly, she felt something move behind her but only turned her head just in time to be slammed against a tree.

"I ate already. Take them with you," Asura said, pointing towards the sack full of souls.

Medusa seemed a little shaken but shook her head in denial. "I cannot. They are failures and I need to get rid of them. You're the wisest way to get rid of them before mother or others realize," she continued and choked a bit when Asura squeezed her throat. He let go for he didn't have time to remain here.

"I bid you a farewell, respectful warlord." Medusa bowed and disappeared into the woods. It seemed as if she didn't want anyone to know about the souls, and Asura was curious as to what she was referring to. He went over to the sack and opened it, taking one soul out from there.

Asura knew immediately that it wasn't normal.

"What is this supposed to be?" He frowned at the dim light the soul gave off. A menacing light. The color was orange and he could tell this had originally been a witch's soul, but another presence dimmed it. It was a fusion between a pre-Kishin and a witch.

Asura hadn't really been into Shinigami's speeches about soul morphing, but there was only one person who had been known to do anything to souls with success. But this wasn't the spider witch Arachne but some kid called Medusa, who ironically was a witch.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to eat these, was he? The orange light made him sick but...but maybe, just maybe it would contain some special powers. He widened the opening and looked more closely and noticed that all the souls were the same. Except for one – he noticed it when ransacking a little. The little blue soul under all the others had wings and it gave a bright light.

´_Could it be...?´ _he wondered and put the black locks behind his ear once again, taking the soul from the sack. Eying it with wide and curious eyes, he confirmed it to be a Grigori soul—a very rare type of soul. But it smelt...familiar. Someone who he had been with. Someone who had a very familiar scent that he had smelled at least once every day, when Maka came to sleep right in front of his face with her hair brushing against his nose.

Asura's eyes widened.

He quickly fastened the sack so that nothing dropped out from it and started chanting. It took only few seconds for him to fly away in the red spheres that appeared. The sack was safely in the corner of the ball so it didn't drop off.

The other warlords were running back as they felt Asura's wavelength go up suddenly, but they were still slow because of the injuries and Death had to support Eibon.

Asura didn't even need to use soul perception to know the others were close by, but that didn't matter to him now. The only thing that mattered was the confirmation that his fears weren't true. The Grigori soul in his hands was vibrating, as if it were afraid because of the madness and fear. And, on top of it all, rage filled the entire area between the two mountains. The people shivered and Asura didn't have slightest desire to stop it.

_´If that witch did it when I was away...´ _He didn't even care about the long black hair anymore, as he burst into the candle land and made the red spheres disappear into thin air. He flew the rest of the journey – dodging the candles - until the candle wall was clearly in sack had dropped onto the ground when Asura had canceled the spheres and the warlord didn't pick it up.

´_If she killed that, then I'm going to rip that witch to shreds!´ _He jumped a little too high, but landed gracefully on his spot and immediately started searching for the infant.

"Come out right now!" he shouted. He searched behind the candles, on top of the candles, under the candles, clawed the wax just in case Maka had eaten any and turned to wax herself, and looked on all of the levels of the candle tower. She wasn't even in the candle holes or dropped dead below the candle wall. He saw no red – saw no dead bodies of babies lying around.

"So...this is her?" Asura eyed the soul suspiciously while sweating. He opened the red and black pinstriped blazer and cooled off. The ridiculous amount of clothing on him proved to be disadvantage right now. He stood up from where he had been sitting and looked down. He felt kinda...empty now.

Why had he devoted two months to a baby whose body was now somewhere, bloody and all useless, with Asura now holding her soul? Maybe this was because he was a woman now. Maybe he should have stayed here a little longer or have not left at all. Now he couldn't give the brat to Eibon, or confirm if she even had a Grigori soul. Asura didn't notice, but his hair got shorter a little so that now it only reached his back.

"Aaah! Bloody candle!"

Asura almost jumped out of his skin when the high pitched shout reached his oversensitive ears. He quickly turned his head only to see—

"Ack, now I've been seen."

The witch queen was hiding behind the candle he was standing on. The flame was not so hot up there, but why – and excuse the language – the hell was the stupid witch here, and now. Mabaa was covered in stearin that looked pretty fresh. She looked down for a moment and then up, meeting his red eyes which were looking at her like she had lost her mind.

"I had a guilty conscience," Mabaa quickly pointed out. "Where is she?"

Asura looked at her weirdly again and raised the little blue soul so that Mabaa would see. The whole candle land was quiet for now. The only sound came from candles but they weren't heard. Mabaa paled as she watched the blue soul in Asura's firm grip and how the warlord brought the soul back to his side.

"Y-You killed her?"

Asura shook his head and still gave her a weird look for standing behind the candle.

"So...She's gone?"

The warlord nodded. Mabaa's head dropped in resignation. She had brought a storybook for Maka, and one interesting toy that witches' children used when they were young. Asura gave her a dry look.

"How much free time do you have, coming here every day?"

"Shut it, youngster. I have lackeys and servants to do my bidding when I want them to." Mabaa gave him a glare under her hat. She took one safety pin off from her black cloak and twisted it to make it look like a cross. Asura watched as she stuck it to the ground and put a toy to hang from it. He mumbled something, but Mabaa chanted something at the same time so the sounds kinda mixed. Soon there were three eyes below the twisted safety pin cross.

"You women sure like to remember things. That won't stay there," Asura commented, eying the soul in his hands.

"This isn't about remembering. It's about paying respect. And I can't understand how you let something like this happen you woman-" and there was a scarf around her throat again. The witch queen struggled to get free and finally used magic, tearing the scarf in the progress.

Asura was in deep thought. And on top of all of his thoughts was that he had forgotten to bring the sack of mutated souls with him.

Suddenly a party of very powerful wavelengths appeared on Mabaa's radar. She whipped her head from behind the candle to look. She lifted her hat a little and activated her magical eyes. The skill was used for observation and was very advantageous. She looked for enemies within a 200 meter radius and spotted the returning warlords. Asura turned his head towards the approaching strong souls and squinted.

"This is bad. I'm not wearing soul protect," Mabaa said in ridiculously apathetic voice.

"Then how were you able to come here? If I recall correctly, Eibon created some tool to prevent witches from entering here."

"I'm the witch QUEEN, boy. Of course I can twist that Scientist's little laws around a bit," Mabaa said, but she was panicking a little. The souls looked ready to fight.

Asura took a look with soul perception too. He scowled a bit. "They must have sensed you, and are out for your blood now," Asura commented dryly and stuffed the Grigori soul in his pocket. The warlord knew the surroundings better than Mabaa, and was able to create a plan faster than the old witch.

"There's a hole under my candle there. You can take wax off the ground, go into the hole, and add the wax as a lid. Use that… whatever spell you use and erase your wavelength completely. Now!" He had to shout the last part because Mabaa seemed to be in her head, thinking.

"I'll change you back when I next see you," she remarked and did as Asura said. The removed chunk of wax made a nasty dimple, but Mabaa manipulated the fire and melted the now hot stearin into the wax floor. Now you couldn't tell there even was a hole. She let Asura worry about the dimple as much as he liked, because the souls were getting there fast. Never in her life did she think that she would be hiding underground, covered in stearin and hiding with the aid of a warlord just because she came to check on how a baby was doing.

´My motherly instincts will get me killed one day...´ she mumbled in her head.

* * *

Asura sat on his usual place and tried to look apathetic, but the small soul kept pushing its way back into his thoughts. He closed the scarves around his head. Never again would he even try to form any kind of an attachment to a child or take in an orphan. And it was stupid to even care since it was just another human. It wasn't actually Asura's fault it was killed and its stupid soul was now pushing against the other souls inside his pocket. He sent a sideways glance to nowhere particular and pondered on whether he should take responsibility and hold a Buddhist funeral for the brat? Would that ease her vengeful spirit?

Asura glanced at the ground floor when the other warlords walked closer eying things, most likely in search of a witch.

"Asura, come down here!" Shinigami shouted as he laid Eibon down, his back resting against one of the candles that had a law written on it.

The soon-to-be Kishin didn't even flinch or make any attempt to come down.

Shinigami sighed. "Did a witch come here?" he yelled, but received mumbling as an answer. Shinigami must have interpreted that as 'no', since he turned his back to the candle wall and aided the wounded warriors. None of them was in critical condition.

"I think I need to summon a healer." Shinigami saw to the nameless warlord who looked like an Aboriginal. He gave Eibon, who was taking support from the candle and crying his eyes out, a long sideways stare. Shinigami could see the blue lines of depression above the scientist.

"And a psychiatrist."

The warriors were finally relaxing and even Death seemed to want to just sit down and sleep. Vajra looked upset and glared Asura, but didn't bother to speak to the bastard. Vajra – actually Bashura now that he was in his human form- had received an immediate call for reinforcements when traveling back from the village they had _saved_ from the witches. Asura, it seemed, hadn't gotten the call so here he had been, two months alone, relaxing and all while Bashura was on the dirtied and bloody battlefield from which they returned with mind crippled Eibon. Asura eyed the mass of powerful wavelengths, but frowned when he didn't find one.

Suddenly Mugen shouted - no one had any idea where he had gone off to - and walked towards the lot. All heads turned towards the Japanese looking man. Asura raised his head to look the wimpy Samurai who was holding a bundle. Asura squinted and frowned behind the scarf mask. From an outsider's point of view it just looked like he raised his head up a little.

"Someone left something at our doorstep," Mugen joked and waggled the bundle, something falling from it. The others quickly lost interest, but kept listening with one of their ears open in case something interesting came up.

"Oi, you dropped this," Excalibur said and handed an old looking piece of paper to the Samurai who looked at it. Excalibur himself gave long stare towards the bundle, and then asked what was written on the piece of paper since he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

Mugen read it out loud:

"_**I thank you for your cooperation this noon. You really saved me. Now, I was just passing by when I felt a disturbing wavelength that had your wavelength mixed in it.**_

_**I hope you don't make a habit out of this.**_

_**I've silenced the child, but please do control yourself, you soon-to-be.**_

_**By the way, tell Mabaa she should consult Eibon about what she did to you. The magic's not very easy to ward off when Eibon's mixed in.**_

_**I hope you raise this child well, since she could be great.**_

_**-M.**_"

The whole room was silent for a while. Mabaa, who had heard every single line, had a tick popping on her head. Who would doubt her powers to that extent? Mabaa almost released her soul protect, but quickly stopped herself. Mugen curiously started taking the cloth off and ignored the wallowing Eibon in favor of this new surprise. Others tended to their injuries. Of course, since seven of the warlords were in one place, they adjusted their wavelengths to a more appropriate level. The biggest of them all—madness of order—spread around like an illness. Asura could feel Shinigami's essence on his skin and soul as he analyzed his surroundings for the missing warlord.

Mugen had finally removed the cloth that was over the baby's head and Maka peeked at this new face she had never seen. The Samurai for once looked completely gobsmacked. He was holding...a baby? He, who himself never thought he would ever hug a child, was holding a baby.

"What's wrong?" Shinigami asked as Mugen started making weird faces and cooing.

"It's a baby!" Mugen cooed at Maka, who was, in fact, trying to bite the finger that the man was pointing at her. This wasn't her bad man, but rather some old looking dude who was making weird faces at her. She would pick Mabaa witch's left breast anytime if this was the second option. Left breast because the milk that came from it was more salty than the milk that came from the right one. Not that she would ever tell that to the witch, of course.

"But I do wonder what this means." Death walked closer to the duo and took the parchment away from Mugen's hands. He studied it a bit and was on the verge of handling it as a prank.

Maka turned her bright green eyes towards Death and studied him. Shinigami seemed to notice the small interest she had in him and touched Maka's cheek with his clawed hand. It made a minor cut, but Maka's eyes seemed to go as wide as plates. This man was just as bad as her bad man! This man gave the same creepy vibes as her bad man did. Maka smiled in happiness as she realized that there were other reliable people out there and reached out to squeeze one of the claws.

"I think it likes you," Bashura said. Shinigami was frozen by the act and the small fingers that curled around his claw were a clear proof of affection.

"Oi, look this way, brat," Mugen ordered the baby and got her attention. "I'm way more interesting than that guy. I can show you around here if you-"

But he never got to finish as Asura had chosen to kick him in the face.

No one really noticed when he had gotten down, but Shinigami, Bashura and Mugen (with Maka) all went flying and when they hit the ground – some 200 meters away – a huge cloud of dust and wax blew up and that, if anything, drew attention.

There was a one big: Eh?

Mabaa could only guess at what was happening, as she couldn't use magic at all while using soul protection. She could, however, feel that Shinigami had just gotten a kick to the face and she was trying not to laugh. A revenge for all the dead witches. Oh, Mabaa was sure she would have to repay Asura for this.

There was one very, very big - What just happened? - in the air, as all the warlords BEHIND Asura's graceful figure and those who DIDN'T get kicked had a large shadow on their very serious faces. The three people who had flown away quickly emerged from the cloud that the blast created. They formed a nice line which looked like Shinigami was crouching, Bashura a little lower, holding Maka and Mugen on the ground, looking very defeated, but that was only if you looked from the side.

"What the hell's your problem? I'm your partner!" Bashura yelled.

"Asura, what was that for?" Death asked while coughing. His mask had cracked a bit and there was stearin on him because they had broken a few candles while flying.

The scientist watched the scene with slight dread for the child.

"Please hand that over, now," Asura answered and started bickering (well it was one-sided, he wasn't really participating) with Bashura. The moment he had seen the brat's face he had decided to kick all three of the men to the corner of the candle land.

Eibon watched as they lashed out at each other. But trust Asura to kick a toddler who was defenseless. Somehow, it left Eibon wordless as he remembered the children he had killed. Maybe he could make some sort of invention to bring them back. But the man in colorful and Mayan looking robes decided against it, thinking that it wasn't worth it.

"Asura, you don't add 'please' to what is clearly a commanding sentence. Who the hell taught you that?" Bashura shouted.

The scarves covering the soon-to-be Kishin's head opened, revealing the long hair but not the face hidden behind it since the hair hid it. Mugen directed his stare towards Asura's chest, which wasn't really _that_ big, but made the Samurai look really uncertain about something. Asura pointed his finger towards Death and Bashura paled as he had just insulted his teacher.

"There really was a witch here," Death said to himself, not really realizing the insult directed towards him. He and all of the other warlords were more shocked to see their comrade—their most serious comrade—turned into a woman. The fact that Asura hardly let anyone near him made it even more confusing.

Asura raised his hand in front of him as if asking something, but Bashura and Death weren't really sure what was being asked of them so they just shook their heads. The weapon handed Maka to Death just in time when, as she was blabbering to Death at full speed, Bashura was shoved aside – Asura being gentle because Bashura was his own weapon.

"Mum!" Maka giggled at Shinigami, who would've found the act simply endearing if not for the current situation. He stood up, receiving an apathetic expression from Asura. Death couldn't read minds and was therefore confused if not slightly irritated by the behavior he was receiving.

Inside, Asura was letting steam off. Those two months hadn't been in vain! His little and kidnapped human was still alive and well, but why she had been moved somewhere away from her original place was beyond Asura. Maybe she was hot and Medusa had kindly moved her, or maybe she had planned to kill her and eat her. Or maybe Maka had started eating her and Medusa had moved her away. In the back of his mind, Asura made a mental note to ask the witch when he next met her, and he would.

"Asura, you know it's not really nice to kick someone who just returned from a battlefield. If you want to fight, then let's save it for tomorrow."

"Hand that over," Asura commanded in a very, very dark tone, some of his hair burning off and regaining some of his lost height.

"Let's just talk and be over with it, alright?" Excalibur commented. He had patched his wounds and was now doing fine. The same couldn't be said about Mugen, since he'd taken Asura's kick's full force and Shinigami and Bashura had landed on him.

"And I'm sure she wouldn't like to be near someone as cranky as you are now," the sword weapon added solemnly, but didn't realize his mistake. Asura whipped his head around and his red eyes gleamed in anger.

"There's no...reason to...trash...anyone..." Death and Excalibur lost their words as the red soul swallowed the whole area, giving off deadly vibes and causing the villagers right outside the wax land to start acting weird. Madness was taking over again and terror ruled now, shoving the order out the window.

"Wouldn't like to be? Weapon, come here so I can trash you a bit." Asura's voice echoed in the space, and Shinigami had millions of sweat drops on his body. Somehow, Asura's temper had made a debut now and it looked like Excalibur was going to get a little more than a trashing. There was a shadow of a grim reaper behind the angry warlord and that just wasn't right.

"I-I can take care of her n...now." Mugen coughed up the words with blood and Shinigami didn't really see any good in doing what he said, so he just knocked the Samurai out.

Excalibur's shouts for help – help that was absolutely not coming - echoed in Asura's large soul. It wasn't until the legendary sword's bloody carcass was on the ground that Asura calmed down a bit. But not as much as Death would've liked.

He mumbled and turned to Shinigami. Seriously, the skeleton behind Asura was starting to creep him out. Out of reflex, Shinigami held Maka in front of himself, ready to use her as a shield, but then Maka shouted,

"MUM!"

Asura's scarf came to pick the baby up, who blabbered at the bloodlust because this was what her bad man usually felt like. Asura held her in his arms and sighed. He turned away, but the curious eyes followed him as he jumped onto his own level in the candle wall. The chattering started again, as something particularly rare and interesting had just happened. The scary cat and nervous Asura who couldn't trust a soul and who was extremely violent had taken in a baby.

What had happened in the two months they had been away?

* * *

The next morning started awfully. Mabaa had been able to run away in the embrace of night, but had still explained her worries to Asura. She couldn't be there to feed Maka and both of them – Asura and Mabaa – wanted to avoid the last situation where Maka became sick from the lack of mother's milk. Cow's milk was no good it seemed, and neither would goat milk do. They had thought about the different outcomes until Shinigami came to say goodnight to Asura, who personally had no idea why Death chose to say it to him and interrupt their pondering. In the end, as the morning came, Maka was cranky because she was angry and a few of the other warlords were getting irritated by the crying.

"For god's sake Asura, shut that thing up!" the Samurai shouted, not being a morning person. Eibon and Shinigami were off somewhere, and Excalibur was writing a book about himself.

"That's not going to sell," the aboriginal warlord commented behind Excalibur's back, making him twitch and start bickering.

"Tell it to go to sleep," Asura answered.

Mugen, irritated, grabbed his arm and turned him around, but backed off with a yelp when he saw how Asura's eyes looked quite blank and dark with black bags under his eyes.

"Did it keep you awake all night? I didn't hear anything," he declared confusedly.

Asura didn't seem to fancy talking any longer and was almost asleep, rocking to and fro to calm Maka. The act miraculously worked, but Maka was still cranky and started biting anything near her.

"Eat this." Mugen handed the girl a carrot, but the hand was slapped away by Bashura.

"It's a baby! It doesn't eat solid food. Look, it doesn't even have teeth," Bashura said, showing Maka's gums to the Samurai, who made an acknowledging sound.

But Maka wasn't happy that her mouth was being stretched. When she started crying again, the Aboriginal warlord exited in favor of listening to the birds outside of the candle land.

"Why did you make it cry again? Babies tend to be hard to take care of," Bashura complained.

Shinigami appeared from thin air right below the candle wall with a few human souls to do soul burial. Maka's loud cries, however, reached his ears and the leader of the warlords glanced longingly up. He had never had affection from children, since his mask looked too scary. Their parents, however, respected and feared Death and told their offspring not to go near any of the warlords.

"What are you doing?" he asked tiredly and appeared right next to the quartet.

"Good evening, teacher," Asura greeted politely, but the greeting was properly thrown off when Shinigami saw the black bags under his red eyes.

The rest of the lot gave their greetings quickly.

Maka made quite a lot of noise and Asura looked ready to do something Mabaa wouldn't appreciate at all, almost throwing Maka to her doom, but quickly threw the thought out the window. Maka stopped crying at some point and settled for biting Shinigami's clawed hand that was offered her. After a while, when Asura just looked like he would drop dead at any moment, the baby was given to Shinigami and the soon-to-be Kishin fell asleep immediately.

"This guy has got some gifts," Mugen poked the sleeping warlord with his katana.

Shinigami was quite content.

Eibon chose to enter at that point. "I've got the blueprints- Not you too!" He made a horrified sound and backed away from Maka. "Listen, I'll not tolerate children in my presence! You give up her up for adoption or I'm leaving. Temporarily." Eibon threw a whole lot of paper onto Death's feet and left the site, fuming.

"That sounded like you were married," Bashura commented.

Shinigami nodded with a troubled expression on his face. Maka started squirming a little and Shinigami started throwing her into the air, to make up for her lost breakfast. "Up you go!" And then he threw her a little too high and to the wrong direction. Bashura gave a horrified squeak while Mugen drew his sword and threw it in her direction, jumping and standing on top of his sword in the air and tried to reach her but a scarf collected Maka faster and the Samurai fell down, but landed on his feet.

"Mum, aaaa..." Maka spoke proudly and was taken to the man who sat up from his laying down position.

"I got it," he said with a glint in his eyes that didn't promise anything good.

In the meantime, Mugen climbed up only to arrive at a scene that was way beyond him. He cursed the scarves, and Bashura shot another comment back at him while Shinigami picked Maka up again.

Asura was simply opening his striped blazer's zipper when all the heads turned towards the sound and gears clicked in their heads.

"ASURA YOU'RE NOT!" Bashura shouted, enraged and started explaining something about male honor.

"Don't take advantage of that body! You may never turn back," Shinigami tried to reason with Asura. He glanced at the Samurai, who was looking serious. "See, none of us-"

"Are you going to take the shirts off too?" Mugen asked, the duo beside him losing their balance.

"THERE'S A PERVERT HERE! YOU DON'T WANT TO UNDRESS NOW!"

"Then do you have any other ideas, teacher?" Asura asked, and discarded the blazer along with two shirts. Oh, the dread, as there was only one more shirt—a dress shirt which was being opened. Slowly, the chest was being revealed.

"If you think it's perverted, then don't look," Asura added with a dry look that was directed at Shinigami especially, who sputtered and turned around taking the two others with him. He left Maka right next to Asura and jumped off with the protesting Samurai who was saying stuff about blackmail material.

´_She did it like this if I remember right…´ _Asura settled Maka in his arms and the baby immediately went to suck off the breast, and becoming happy when fed. Asura, for once, wasn't happy at all. The moment Maka started her sucking, it drew a loud shriek from his mouth and he felt...weird. Uncomfortable, and not only that but it felt preposterous and disgusting and...Maka sighed and made weird noises that only encouraged Asura to look away.

"Asura, what's wrong? I heard a shout." Shinigami appeared right in front of him and almost immediately flew right back down. Mugen took the chance to jump up, too, and was soon blessed with a perfect view (not that Asura would feel embarrassed since he wasn't a woman really).

"Big improvement!" he shouted but was met with a scarf connecting with his abdomen and dragging him in for a beating.

Eibon appeared once again next to Shinigami, holding a tool of some sorts. "This is the prototype- what is this?" he asked as he turned to face a bloodied Asura (it was Mugen's blood) feeding the irritating baby from his own breast. It was highly disturbing image.

"You weren't supposed to return." Shinigami gave Eibon a dry look with disappointment which the scientist returned with a snort. "He's messed with my book, hasn't he?" He took a new looking book which had EIBON written on it with curvy letters. Shinigami stopped him however, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Not now. Let him sleep a little," he declared, and Eibon watched as Asura's hanging head was moving with his slow breath in sleep. Maka didn't seem to care and kept drinking.

"What kinda a mother is that," Eibon commented sarcastically on Asura's bloody body and Mugen's carcass on the ground. But the child looked happy.

* * *

**AN: **Thanks for reading again!

And I know meisters aren't supposed to eat souls but...but! How in the world did Asura become mad before he had even touched Vajra or eaten him! And how do normal people eat souls and become Kishins when they aren't weapons?

And partly why Asura is suddenly so attached to Maka is because he's a woman and woman's have this...weird thing for babies? It'll go away soon. But the feeding was the male Asu's idea :D

**R&R**


	7. Stheino's evil plans

**Author's note: **I can't possibly apologize for this delay, can I? I started high school two weeks ago and...It's really eating up my time =_= I try to update anyway! I promise.

Thanks for all those who wished to be Empty Cradle's beta and I picked the first one, Dragon'sHost. I was really happy from the response you gave me and I hope you'll find no mistakes in the story's grammar and spelling now :)

And Asura's back to being man again. After he had fed Maka he dreamed about eating souls and changed back.

* * *

Empty Cradle

_7. Stheino's evil plans_

Eibon was the scientist, the Magician in the group of eight. He was almost always polite - in that way he was the same as Asura – and didn't really get into fights with the other members. He didn't have any family and most of the witches wondered why he was even fighting alongside with Death. The colorful robes and the mask he wore attracted attention almost anywhere so he didn't really go near people.

He liked to keep to himself.

A solitary man.

Shinigami had given him a permission to test the boundaries of witches' magic and human souls. He even gave him a permission of modification to these two after much whining. Souls he had studied for mere 50 years and he still held the same knowledge as Shinigami, even though the god was far older.

In the group of eight he was fairly powerful but didn't want to viewed as such from the point of power. The black mass of power usually scoffed Eibon for not using his grandeur well. Even after this, the man in the long set of colorful robes was quiet, not saying a word nor defending himself.

The enigma in the group however was Asura. The man only condescended those who he liked worthy of his presence so not much was known of him except that he was just...weird. No, that was not a right word to describe the wary man but maybe something like...mad.

Eibon looked from behind a candle as Asura first carefully rolled Maka away from himself and when the baby just rolled back to him, he started throwing her up in the air. The scientist's face didn't wince or grimace but he just stared with wonderment. Why did terror* choose to raise a child? The witches had given each of them a nickname and since Death didn't have anything against it. They just kept the names behind their ears and accepted them. They were very fitting anyway.

Eibon was knowledge. He took a book from his robes and looked at the first chapter. Something emerged from the book and landed on his shoulder. It was first covered in white paint but then it started to wear off, revealing its general shape; a mechanized face that's shape was triangular and it had swirl patterns painted on it - it's body covered in small shroud, full of words. The creature was small, about the size of Eibon's head.

"_Rilleabing_,*" Eibon muttered a spell he had learned from one witch's soul and it caused the index to grow feet and arms. It also seemed to acquire a hat that looked like two pillbox hats put together and elongated in the middle from the connection, plus it had a roulette pattern on it. The whole creature seemed to change to that of a little monkey except for it's mechanical body shape and face.

"Good day, Eibon." The index of the book greeted and took a comfortable position on the scientist's shoulder. There wasn't really any respect in those words and Eibon knew the index held none for him - its creator.

"Has the Lust been trampled with?" Eibon started, looking towards Asura again who was in fact trying to command Maka to stop crying The baby had a large lump on the back of her head. Asura, it seems, had dropped her while throwing. From all the _mistakes_ Asura committed towards the baby, Eibon had to ponder why she kept returning to his side all the time.

"Yes, but I corrected the damage done to the chapter." Index answered "The incubus wasn't harmed." he created a sideways glance towards the duo in front of the candle wall. It literally gasped, "Is that terror?"

Eibon seemed to find the fact that the index was surprised amusing and hummed a little, "Ah that. She's been here for a while now. I learned about her existence a few weeks ago." the words were said with much apathy, as Eibon didn't really care for the baby. He shouldn't even be allowed to be near her since...he killed those children on the battle field. The guilt ate him on the inside and he doubted it would go away for a long time but he didn't allow it to swallow him. He wasn't that weak.

"Shinigami seems to find her presence enjoyable since she's the only one who dares to bite him back or then be with him with no tension, but what can you expect from a baby a little over 6 months old." Eibon said nonchalantly and missed the stare the index was giving him. The scientist opened the book once again and saw blueprints laying over the pages and loose pages that he had taken from Mabaa's spell book. The index sighed and gave Eibon a sympathetic pat on the head which earned a confused look from the warlord. His hand that held metal claws (if they were even claws) touched the spot the Index had touched as the other jumped down from his shoulder and started walking towards Asura and Maka.

"Wait! where are going?" Eibon demanded and narrowed his eyes behind the mask when he only received a wave of a mechanical hand. Eibon was so caught up in his thoughts of modification of the index that he didn't see Asura staring at him. The red eyes calculated and suspected the quiet man and they narrowed when a ball fell from Eibon's sleeve. The man immediately picked it up and looked for damage before quickly putting it back to his robes.

They were comrades. There was suspicion and competition in the group and they viewed each other as their worst enemies. They all found something wrong with each other but weaker members didn't really pay any mind to it. They worked as a team and to the world they were, The eight powerful warriors or the warlords. It didn't really matter if Asura didn't care for teamwork but Shinigami had said that he should get used to it after being paired with Vajra, one of the first demon tools. He was one of the few who had a weapon. Eibon and Shinigami didn't have one, Mugen used an original sword and about the others, not many know. Maybe they did have a weapon but they didn't show it to the world or Shinigami.

The index could see thoughts of doubt filling Asura's head as he stared Eibon who turned away from the shadow of the candle and started walking away. The man was probably going back to his own laboratory to do more research.

"Hello." Index greeted Maka and knelt down in front of her. Maka still had a few tears at the corners of her eyes but was very interested by this new addition to the group. She was sucking her thumb and holding Asura's scarf close to her small chest. Maka was only wearing the cloth around her that worked as a diaper. Asura felt a little tug Maka gave his scarf and turned around when Eibon was really gone, even his soul. The baby was looking somewhat scared with her shaking eyebrows and doubt in those green eyes. Asura felt sympathy for this little creature since right now it was feeling fear for the unknown. Fear for things it didn't know of or hadn't seen before.

It brought a small smile on Asura's lips and he raised Maka off from the ground.

"There, there." Maka's head was now resting on Asura's shoulder and a scarf held her interest and sometimes petted her head a bit. The warlord rocked back and forth and Maka was soon relaxed. She closed her eyes and quickly slumbered off.

"Interesting,"

Asura watched as Index observed before continuing, "The fact that you, terror, is holding a child is a moment worth to remember. Do you want me to save it in a book?"

"You look scary." Asura commented, completely ignoring Index's offer, since he knew that it would come to pass anyway, no matter what he said.

"My apologizes." It answered with the same disrespecting tone as it used with Eibon. With a slightly creepy morphing, the mechanical looking thing with its wordy shroud was back. "I didn't mean to upset her. Perhaps a book will...reimburse it?"

"I already have one," Asura answered and the Index looked immediately interested.

"Perhaps you could tell me what book you have prepared for her?" the mechanical device questioned and was being very inquisitive from Asura's point of view. "Just to see whether it is proper for her age of course..."

The warlord snorted and one of his four moving scarves, extended and lazily went over to Asura's level in the candle wall and started rummaging through the hole right under his candle. It was where he had hidden Mabaa and he had taken a habit of throwing anything interesting in there for the future. So far there were scraps of paper (from Eibon's blueprints always to humans' storybooks' torn pages), a few interesting devices, broken swords, aroma candles and all kind of attachments and junk. The magic book was below all that, wrapped around a scrap of leather. Once the scarf found what it was looking for it closed the lid on the hole and brought the book down. Asura didn't have to worry about others seeing him in a possession of a magic book since they were all gone anyway. Not that they wouldn't return in a few hours but he got enough time to hide it again. The baby, Maka, was a good Eibon repellent anyway and he doubted the scientist would return soon.

The index somehow took the leather protector away from the book when the scarf handed it the book. It let out a slight hum of acceptance and amazement.

"_Witchcraft & Wizardry_...This is very high literature. I've fixed my opinion of you! Will you let me analyze and read the book before giving it back?" The index questioned with a cheery voice and Asura said that as long as he didn't take weeks over it. He could.

Needless to say the book was returned in two hours.

* * *

"Mabaa-sama!" a young witch came shouting into the witch queen's own quarters. She looked like a polecat witch, known from the eyes, ears and tail and of course, the color of her clothes.

"Mm?" Mabaa turned around behind the partition that had moving birds and Chinese mountains with their bamboo vegetation and foggy mountains. They were all painted in black ink and the paper they were on was yellow from it's old age. The witch queen's own quarters contained her own bedroom, library, and a few secret rooms. This room where she was now was probably the library for its massive bookshelves dominated the space and long satin curtains went to ground from the ceiling from where ever they had been implanted to. Comfy sofas and armchairs were in front of the fireplace which had a fire cracking in it and a Chinese tea set was scattered, broken, on the table in front the sofa. From there you could access the difficult parts of the castle the witches lived.

The witch population didn't always live in the same place but Mabaa was an exception. She didn't constantly have to run from Shinigami so a few hundred years in the past, she built a castle – if you could even call it a castle.

The castle was on located between high mountain peaks and it wasn't the only stone building there. Attached to the firm walls of those high mounts were sacrificial tablets and stone temples. Small wooden houses on the rare mountain roads. It was the biggest witch domicile around.

The castle itself mimicked the old European castles and many of it's innards were cold without any rugs on the floor. Big and heavy velvet curtains of Black color hung from the curtain rods . On the courtyard, there was a big Catholic cross under which the witches had meetings.

But now back to the present where a polecat witch and Mabaa where having a meeting.

"Are you fairly sure that it's true? I cannot send my children to go there to die. The investigation team must have some proof to show me." Mabaa questioned the young witch who looked panicked. She quickly went through her pockets and from there, a very normal looking crystal ball was taken out.

"Please have a look." She bowed respectively and Mabaa took the ball from her hands. The polecat witch knelt, raised her hands and suddenly tensed her hands with so much force that they shook violently and said the magic word: _"Rilleabing!"_

The room got out of focus but the queen seemed to be used to things like this. All her furniture vanished and instead of a castle, there was suddenly a jungle in front of her.

The ball glowed in her hand and the polecat witch was still on the ground, kneeling and eyes closed but she still began her explanation,

"The rebellion group is beginning to move from this base tomorrow. Their head, the second Gorgon sister _Stheino_, has been seen outside on many occasions. It seems they're experimenting the magic tools and books you have given them and some are stolen. A few weeks ago a great deal of souls disappeared from a village right next to this factory. It is my guess that they're planning for something of much bigger scale."

Mabaa watched as the picture was slowly taken from the jungle to a factory made of stone, and they dived inside.

"What happened to the one who recorded this?" Mabaa asked as they went through many turns and doors and arrived into one big, very big hall.

"She was caught and killed." The polecat witch gulped. Mabaa fixed her eyes forward.

_Stheino_, her mortal enemy. Nearly not as powerful as the witch queen herself but she used a branch of black magic only _Gorgoth _could use. Mabaa had to wonder whether _Euryale_ or Medusa knew of this. _Stheino_ despised Mabaa over all living things and attacked humans, warlords and witches. _Stheino _tried to bring magic in to the world as it should be. The pyres killed witches and the old magic that only Mabaa could use any longer, was extinct. She wanted that magic to have a free reign over humans, enslaving them and finally killing them. It was a horrible future that Mabaa wished would never come true.

The hall held several portraits of famous men and women. In the middle of the hall there was a round table and there were twelve chairs around it. The council of Black Magic or as Mabaa dubbed it, the council of twelve idiots. Their chairs were empty but some were out of place, showing that a palaver had just ended. The picture took them to the underground chambers. Chilling screams filled the old ears of the queen.

In the chamber, there were witches who were forced to eat human and pre-kishin souls. Witches who were being ripped off from their magic and then humans who were eating that magic.

"What are they doing?" Mabaa asked, composed.

"T-they're trying to create a new breed of witches, madam. _Stheino _is, to be exact, not here. She seemed to leave when the palaver ended. We found documents regarding her attack and then..."

"What did you find?" Mabaa required and the polecat witch seemed to hesitate a moment.

"We...I-I believe we found her...diary. I don't know what it entails since it's written in gibberish. Hogwash if you ask me."

The polecat witch's grip around the ball tightened and the image ended. She quickly secured the ball in her robes and stood up. Mabaa turned to face her as she waved her hand and an old looking journal appeared. It had blue leather cover and there weren't any locks on it, but a small strap closing it very weakly.

Mabaa took the journal from the polecat witch's hands and went through its pages. As the witch had said, it was utter hogwash and not even she could translate this. Waving her hand around the book, Mabaa verified all the protective enchantments on it. It seems it couldn't be translated by magic.

_´You think this'll remain a secret, do you Stheino?´_ Mabaa snorted,"You've done well. Consider yourself at home and rest for now." Mabaa closed the journal and sighed. The polecat witch bowed and with a quick 'madam', she exited the room.

Mabaa walked over to a door leading to her sleeping chambers. She waved her hand to close the door behind her and threw the book onto her bed.

Getting rid of her obnoxious clothes, she threw them to the wardrobe which swallowed them into its waiting mouth and smacked them. Mabaa herself walked over to the door to her left and on the way, grabbed a waiting towel from the back of a chair.

She really needed a hot bath right now.

* * *

"Do it."

"I don't wanna. You do it."

"Listen. If you don't do it I throttle you and wreck your sword. The blue one."

"TOO BAD I ALREADY HID IT! AHAHAHAHA!"

"What are you two doing?" Shinigami asked exasperatedly. He hovered over the two bickering warlords and slew the free Kishin egg terrorizing the downtown. Asura and Mugen were having a royal fight over who would kill the extra kishin eggs. They both were lazy beyond repair. The samurai was dancing and acting like a child in front of composed Asura who had Maka on his shoulders. She looked happy and tried to tug Asura's hair but received a slap as a thanks when a lump of hair left Asura's mane.

"You cannot hide it. I know it's under your candle." Asura answered while Mugen's jaw hit the floor.

"How did you know that?"

"The baby told me. She drooled on it when you were sleeping. It's blade should be rusty by now." Asura added sarcastically, his face showing signs of apathy as Mugen looked horrified.

"I'll remember this!" He shouted and sprinted off to the candle land, leaving Asura and Shinigami alone in their hunt. Shinigami looked after Mugen and tried to find the reasons why he had hired that bastard who ditched his work for a rusty sword.

"You do realize that now that he left, you're forced to do his work too." Shinigami asked, as if talking to a child, not smart enough to comprehend what just happened. This time it was Asura's turn to look slightly vexed off.

"I think not. I'll take care of my portion but that guy takes care of his own. I'm not his babysitter."

"This isn't about babysitting or grudge. If you don't get rid of those, they're going to kill people."

"You can take care of it. You're the all powerful god, remember?" Asura rolled his eyes and glared random bystanders who looked terrified or cursed at him.

"This is an order. You're to get rid of them before I lose my patience with you and send you to the other world. You can have a reunion with your crippled mommy and daddy and then cry against her chest and complain how evil I am." Shinigami snorted and slew five kishin eggs, jumping to the roofs. He followed them and Asura felt like he needed to retort so he slew the enemies on the streets while shouting at his master.

"How truly evil. I don't have a mother. I also have no recollection of my father so insulting them would prove you to be a spaz." Asura spat and jumped, making Maka giggle happily as wind caressed her cheeks. "I figured you could just eat these and be rid of them. They wouldn't even reincarnate and cause more trouble."

"Don't kid with me. Do you want me to become a demon god? My ancestors would roll in their graves if I'd do that." Shinigami said and jumped over Asura's shoulder, to the busy street, carefully avoiding normal people and he spotted the last Kishin egg as did Asura. They both sprinted after it.

A shop keeper yelped when Asura jumped on the cloth that shielded his fruits from the sun and technically made it fall onto him when he jumped.

They reached the frightened kishin egg with their hands extended.

"I'll eat them." Asura was standing on the corpse, his figure looking crazy with his bloody red eyes that gleamed. The dried and fresh blood smelled horrible and he was painted with it. Maka was clean and she was looking at the sky or more exacty - at the sparrows that flew in there.

Shinigami sighed and collected the evil soul. He handed it to Asura.

"Make Vajra eat this. I'm sure you're the closest to making him a death scythe. Remember, it's for Vajra. Don't eat it." Shinigami joked, not knowing that Asura might have taken it seriously.

Well no one knew he was eating souls. Except Mabaa and that weird blond witch.

He'd like to find that brat again and kill her. How dare she ever use he, Asura, as a soul dumpster. The thought still angered him and Asura gritted.

"Come on. We have to get ready to leave. There is a rebellion happening in Bulgaria. They might kill the current king and upset the order if we don't leave soon and put an end to it." Shinigami motioned for Asura to follow him. Asura however, ignored this order and created a sideways glance to the stall he had destroyed. The apples looked quite edible.

"Would you like an apple?" Asura questioned Maka who tried to look like she had no bloody idea she had just drooled on his head. Biting the hand that was extended to pick her up from his shoulders, Asura winced and glared the baby in front of him.

"Well damn you. I'll make you the queen of that nation." Asura mumbled and rummaged through his pockets, finally finding his old and ragged pouch. The insides chinked. The shop keeper looked delighted when the warlord came closer, still looking quite menacing with all the blood.

"Good day. Impressive show back there." he winked. "Now how can I help you?"

"A basket of those." the pale long digit pointed at the bright green apples. Maka watched with fascination as the long thing moved.

"Five pounds, two crowns and three pennies, thank you." The stall keeper handed Asura a weaved basket (it cost extra five Guineas) which had the apples in it.

Maka swayed to fro on Asura's shoulders as they strode back to the candle land. Asura didn't bother to greet a few farmers who politely wished him a good morning. In his stead, Maka waved at them and ogled everything around. The sun was scorching the ground and the temperature was around 20 Celsius*. A tanner went past them with his cargo in the wooden carriage, the man whistled and had a hay between his teeth.

"Mornin'!" He shouted when he noticed Asura. Asura stopped and blinked at him.

"Baaa!" Maka answered. The tanner looked delighted.

"Well yeh've got a kid! Didn' kno' o' tha'.*" The tanner smiled and stopped the carriage. The horses that were up front made a sound and their hooves stopped moving. Asura looked suspiciously at the man who went through his pockets and then threw a piece of leather at him. Asura caught it before it hit his face and scowled at the man. Maka seemed baffled. How dare that stinky thing attack her bad man!

"See yah." The tanner waved and continued his journey through the village. The clouds decided to hide the sun behind them at that moment. Maka frowned and stared the sky again. Asura skeptically eyed the piece of leather he had got. He realized it was a small leather tunic with no sleeves. Made for children about Maka's size.

Asura looked at the offending piece of clothing for a while. Suddenly he got this urge to make her try it on. It didn't do to go around in diapers although it didn't seem to affect Maka's reputation at all. Now that he mentioned it, the piece of cloth working as the diaper was beginning to get wet.

"Oh no-You just didn't...!" Asura shouted as Maka let out a sigh and had an blissful expression.

She peed on him.

Asura was still holding the piece of clothing in front of him. A few ladies right next to him giggled and men coughed, trying to hide their laughter.

* * *

_-Rilleabing_ is a word trifled from _release. _The spell allows the caster to see the the thing it's cast upon, real form and is therefore very useful. It is a witch spell probably made by a polecat witch.

-20 Celsius is around 68 Fahrenheit. (I think Americans use Fahrenheit.)

-My very lame way to mimic some accent.

A/N: I don't really like the anime version of Eibon so in my version, he doesn't have a dead wife lurking around the corner or grieve over it and he doesn't start the research over immortality. Also the research that lead to BREW will be done by him only. In manga it didn't really seem like Arachne was in the BREW developer team since she speaks of "that is Eibon's greatest masterpiece" or whatever. She literally blew up an island just to hide the BREW, when she could've merely stolen the BREW if being in the developer team. Also I don't believe Eibon has assistants so no, no. He works alone.

When writing this I was wondering if you find it weird when Asura's behaving 'normally'. Like buying apples and fighting alongside with the other warlords. Well honestly, I have no idea. I guess I just like to make it more clear that he really was already slightly mad when being in the team and his madness develops even further when being in the team. He's going to resemble the Asura we all love and know soon.

_IMPORTANT! - I'm thinking of making an opening for empty cradle(as in anime op). Do you have any idea what program would be easy to use for animation?_

**Please review! I want reviews! Many reviews!**


	8. The appearance of the Spider Witch

**Author's note:** FLOBBERWORMY NEW YEAR! My potions always fail in pottermore and I'm almost out of money...

Anyway it's sleet, rain, snow and more sleet here in southern shire and what-not in this lovely weather. Where the hell's the snow and ice when you need it? I want Whitewalkers in here and Stark's running about – _Winter is coming_...which it's not doing at the moment.

By the way there's Arachne/Asura in this. Beware if you do not like. It's not really graphic but it's sex. _Btw: this isn't beta'ed~_

* * *

Empty Cradle

_8. The appearance of the Spider Witch_

"I'm never getting used to this..." Medusa complained as she dragged spent bodies and ointment outside to the sun's heat. The odor was hideous and from time to time limbs lay scattered behind her in a trail as she tried to do her job quickly. There was already a pile forming on their backyard and her mother had told her to burn the old ones when she was away. Medusa had half a mind to stick one of the rotten children with their eyes bulged out to crows and then feed it in a soup to her mother.

Their little cabin was in the woods, just outside the Great Desert. Medusa would sometimes go to the desert to play with scorpions and snakes and find tombs for the dead rabbits but otherwise it was too scalding hot for her. The trees provided shade and cool air and she preferred it in the woods but just as the desert had it's minus sides, so had the forest. The rotten smell from the corpses hung in the air and didn't leave because of the thick underbrush and canopies, making Medusa's day most uncomfortable.

"There you go." She threw the last one on top of the pile and looked at them all with disdain. ´_Cobra snakey snakey cobra!´ _ She stabbed the pile viciously with her arrow tail and kicked sand at them before throwing a firing torch at the pile.

"JACKY!" Medusa shouted at the woods and soon a young _radande_* came out from the trees. She looked shy and sorry and fell over her own feet, making Medusa scowl.

"Wh-what does she-snake want?" the spirit stuttered and patted her front. She had branches sticking out from her head and her body was made from aspen as she was an aspen spirit. Medusa took her hair into her firm grip and dragged her inside despite her protests and shouts of pain.

"Sit down will you!" The snake witch shouted and threw the poor spirit against a pile of logs in the corner. The shy spirit quivered and Medusa raised her chin up brutally by taking a hold of it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out there? You should have gone to trail _Stheino_!"

"I'm so sorry! I couldn't! She threatened to cut my tree if I did that and then your sister came-"

"My sister?" Medusa's eyes widened in horror as she whipped her head around to look outside from the window. There was nothing there except a black spider who had its eyes trained on them...

"Dammit!" Medusa shouted and her arrow snake destroyed the spider, making the tree spirit scream in horror as a black woman's face started forming in the place of the spider.

"_My, my...sweet little sister. How brutal." _a resounding laugh sounded and Medusa took a step back. The tree spirit hid behind her as a very beautiful face looked upon them. Oh how Medusa hated her and right now this woman was trespassing when their mother wasn't here to drive her away.

"_Arachne_..."Medusa hissed, "should have guessed. I wonder whether you made this spying of yours a hobby? I just confess that we don't have any virgin women or boys under twenty to offer you." Medusa smirked and Arachne scowled.

"_You haven't changed at all. Still as cocky as ever." _She spat and moved her hair behind her ear. Arachne was in mosaic like dress with a very wide neckline that had three dominating colors, red, black and violet. Her hair was as Medusa remembered, tied to a tight bun and two loose strands coming from both sides of her face. She looked as disgustingly stunning as ever.

"P-please make her go away..."

"Shut it!" Medusa shouted at the tree spirit but still held the quivering spirit behind herself. She readied her arrow tail to attack if anything weird happened. "So what brings you to this lowly hovel dear sister?" She smirked, seemingly strong but inside Medusa was overcome with rage. She hated her sister. Hated! And now that very woman was in front of her, even if her visage was showing only to the shoulders.

"_Where might mother be? I wished to discuss things of great importance with her."_

"Don't lie to me, you knew perfectly well she wasn't here at the moment."

"_Did I now..." _Arachne eyed the cabin with great interest as she looked at all the anagrams and magical circles on the floor and walls. She smiled and the tree spirit clutched Medusa's leg, drawing blood and Medusa shook her off with hisses.

"_Oh no, don't get me wrong. I'm not here to fight. Not today..."_ She trailed,_"I heard about the way you dealt with those souls. Might I ask who you forced to eat them? I cannot imagine them making any appetizing meal."_

"How about you? Been having fun mixing witches and humans together? I hope you find a suitable companion among those wrecked minds and failures." Medusa chuckled and her eyes went wide. Suddenly her presence wasn't that of a child, if it ever was, but something wild and untamed. More like a snake ready to attack.

"_You dare!"_Arachne seethed.

"Or have you been having fights with the witch queen? Perhaps I should tell Shinigami of your hiding place and force you to flee. Oh yes, that would be a sight! A running spider witch Arachne!" Laughter erupted in the cabin and the tree spirit smiled a little until Arachne's narrowed eyes showed the net inside them. They were gleaming dangerously.

"_You wouldn't know where I'm right now. You have no means to discover me and I assure you he won't find me here."_

"Does _the_ _Sea Trap_ ring a bell?" Medusa chuckled and Arachne's eyes widened.

"_You-! My sweet little sister what a wench you've become. Someday I'll get you on your knees like then when you were five and the youngest of the Gorgon siblings before your death."_

"I don't remember ever kneeling in front of you." Medusa raised an eyebrow. Arachne looked at her with loathing but soon threw something at the duo in the cabin. Medusa's arrow tail shot up and pierced the thing in the air.

"A token of gratitude for the last time." Arachne's picture wavered a bit and then disappeared completely.

Medusa sprinted to the place Arachne's picture had been to find a dead spider on the floor. She spat on it and fed it to the tree spirit, forcing it down from her throat as a punishment for not trailing _Stheino _and getting caught by Arachne.

"I want better results next time." Medusa barked.

"Yes ma'am!" The poor spirit screamed and was thrown out from the little cabin. Medusa lowered her tail a bit and took the pierced thing off from it. It turned out to be a necklace made from golden chain and a stone with spider's net in it. Medusa glared it and deemed it trinket, throwing it to the corner of the room and turned towards kitchen.

She still had to make beds and food before mother came back.

* * *

"I'm never getting used to this." Mugen said as he watched Asura feed Maka. Mabaa had came and done magic and left like that. Shinigami didn't even want to start thinking that maybe he should update the security since witches were walking in and out from their candle land. The witch queen was probably going to still the witches underground before the restlessness began to spread.

"Then don't look. I can't say I'm finding it any less comfortable but I deal with it since she can't starve." Eibon said and sat cross legged on the ground with Index on top of his shoulder in its monkey form. Maka stayed away from it, forcing Asura away too. The gender bended warlord sat against the candle wall and watched boringly as Maka sucked his breast.

"We could go to a village and have that babe suck a whore's bosom or then some farmer's girl." Mugen frowned and picked up his sword.

"Off with you. Asura would never agree." Shinigami said but when Asura was asked whether he liked it or not, he gladly agreed. Shinigami buried his face in his palm and watched as both Mugen and Asura were walking out from the candle land with the baby.

It had been almost a year now when Shinigami first came to know of the existence of Maka. She was starting to grow her teeth and bit everything near her mouth. Also the leather tunic Asura had gotten for her seemed to be rather too small than too big for her and it rubbed against her arms, making them itch and have a rash. More than once they had been forced to go to a doctor for the rash and small fever. Shinigami had hated the week when Maka had just cried and been grumpy towards everybody. He would have probably killed the kid if Asura's bloodthirsty face wasn't so funny to see in restraint.

´_Too bad I don't have kids.´ _Shinigami shivered at the thought.

Outside the candle land, Mugen directed Asura straight to the more indecent alley in the barracks where all the brothels and adult entertainment was located at. A week ago a sweet shop had caught afire in the fourth corner of the street and the brothel next to it too. Mugen told Asura that if he wanted a classy woman, he should go into one of the houses that had a candle up on the window signaling the brothel was open. The woman and men on the streets were poor and some had just taken up prostitution and they were reaping money out from even the teenagers when they had no real skill. Not that teenage was considered too young to start to enjoy the pleasures of flesh.

"This is the right cathouse. I love the girls here!" Mugen whistled with a big smile and stepped in. Asura looked over the building and whisked a stray hair over his shoulder. He wasn't sure girls came to these places. Well he wasn't really a girl and girls (or women for that matter) worked here.

He stepped in and a flowery scent hit his nostrils.

"Welcome, welcome! Do you need a room for two?" a man came up immediately."Oh what a lovely madam! I assure we have boys at all ages from all across the country and men to fulfill your needs..." The man kept blabbering and even though Asura tried to look like he was listening, his eyes kept examining the place for any dangers. The noises coming from the rooms, pants and begs and what-not, were not disturbing. A sideways glance at Maka told him that she didn't mind at all. Maka's hair was starting to grow truly and already it could be made into two little pigtails. She was currently on Asura's shoulders, kept there by a few scarves which she was chewing.

"...and of course if the lady prefers women, naturally we have them too. Shall I give you a tour?" the man asked. He was rubbing his hands together and looked all greasy and disgusting waiting for money. Asura handed him quietly a purse of coins.

"Show me what you have to offer."

As usually these kind of establishments were well kept despite their reputation of ruining the morale. During his visits in other parts of Europe, brothels were banned and the Catholic church hated them. A door was open to one suite and Asura's quick gaze saw a woman laughing with a man who she was offering a drink. In the eastern countries some harlots were being so respected they rivaled rich men with their fortune and prestige.

"Here in this room. It happens my lady is quite lucky. Two of our most selling are free tonight and they are waiting for you to choose them." The man smiled and gestured for Asura to follow.

Somewhere on the upper floor, he could hear his companion laughing at some joke and a woman's shriek followed.

"Ah, a customer is it?" a man's voice asked. Maka gurgled and Asura raised his head to meet with a blond boy not nearly of his age. He looked to be fifteen.

"She's not for you James. Back off." a woman laughed and smoked his pipe. She looked a bit more well cared for than the boy but they exited the room and entered the back rooms. It was dark and incense was smoking making it difficult to breath. Maka's eyes watered and she sniffed, tears streaming down from her eyes because of the itching in her lacrimal gland. Maka rubbed her eyes.

"Owner! Could you open the windows? it's suffocating in here!"

"Shut it you wench! Don't you have customers to please."The man's gruff reply earned him a thrown bottle and a pout. The whore walked away from them but right when she exited the room through the beaded plum colored door-curtain, another woman came in.

Asura's jaw actually dropped a little.

"Master, do you think it's time for me to leave? I haven't strolled around this dear city for three days."

"Oh! What a great timing!" The owner's rejoiced voice said and he turned his very satisfied face towards Asura who was still looking at the woman. Her black hair was falling down her back and the laced forest green dress made her chest stand out as Asura could actually see the little hole between the breasts and it really did draw eyes to it. An ornate necklace made from iron, probably, was shining with its big spider eyes and she was wearing a scarf around her arms to keep the cold winds off. When she lifted her head a little, since the owner was more than a beansprout, her dark leashes opened slightly to reveal clever obsidian eyes. Asura had never seen someone so beautiful in his life.

"May I introduce you to Lady Arachne."

* * *

Arachne viewed the woman in front of him with scrutinizing eyes. If the fact that _she_ was wearing a man's clothes and the heavy magic that lingered around in the air with _her_ was anything to go by, Arachne could have bet her whole fortune that this _she_ was actually a _he_.

Arachne smiled sweetly at this black haired mystery in front of her.

"Why, welcome to the shop. I assure you we can do anything even to women." Arachne started with a nose high in the air.

"I..." It seemed like the _woman _didn't know what to answer but just kept staring. It was becoming highly amusing really and Arachne busted up her chest a little more.

"She's a newcomer. Came with the lord warlord."

"All the more interesting. I'll take you." Arachne laughed at the expression on the woman's ivory face. Taking her arm and squeezing it against her chest seemed to make the other wince slightly. A newcomer in a brothel who didn't expect to get a whore? Arachne sniggered in her mind.

Maka looked at the wooden walls and tried to catch a fly in the air but failed. Instead she chose to stare the one just beside her mam. She only raised her head when a breathy something-maybe-a-moan, resounded from three rooms at once.

The hair up at Asura's neck stood up at the sound and he wanted out. Never again would he complain about the baby and never would he ever even reconsider taking someone to feed the girl for him. He'd do it himself from this moment onwards. Surely this was how the gods punished him for his insolence? If so when Maka grew up, he'd teach her to be so modest and good girl all the others would envy her for that. Although the thought was ridiculous. Making someone modest in definitely-not-so-modest company as the other warlords was...impossible.

"Get in." Arachne gently patted his back and another shiver went from his head to his toes. He was trapped as the door closed behind him.

"Now...let's get that annoying enchantment off from you Mr. mysterious." Arachne smiled and Asura, for the first time actually, felt a slight tremor in the soul wavelength of the woman. It was so small that the others in the candle land, not even that moron of a Samurai would ever notice it. Subtle hint and then there was a witch in front of him. Not a beautiful prostitute but a beautiful witch prostitute.

Arachne took a step closer. Asura refused to take any steps. Then she raised her eyebrow elegantly.

"Not a thief then."

"You dare..." suddenly she was becoming annoying. The graceful movements were a danger to him and she was a witch. A witch who was apparently working right under Shinigami's nose which itself was hilarious. Asura could kill her right now...

Arachne noticed how the air spiked a little and the candles in the room flickered. So a powerful one then. Not a thief, regal and important enough to get insulted by her comments and someone who was paranoid for she could see how her movements affected _him_. Him because this one was no woman. Of that, she was absolutely sure.

"Now don't be like that. You're here to enjoy yourself. A man like you has no need for disguises. Here let me..." She let herself be drawn to him as if by some force. Arachne touched Asura's chest. It was average, not as big as hers but it would do. "Or else I'll start right now. You have paid after all..." She opened the jacked and let her fingers in. No reaction.

A finger traced her throat.

"Oh...you're a kinky one." She smiled and waved her hand. Her hair was then tied to a ponytail and it left her fragile neck bare. "Let me ease you..." Arachne whispered and got closer. She leaned against the other, their chest flatting each other and felt how this one pulsed with life, with anger and...insanity.

Asura's fragile disguise fell away the moment the witch's lips touched his. They were as soft as he had deemed them. Maka watch them from her royal VIP place and kept chewing Asura's hair that shortened and those vertical eyes appeared back to it. Maybe Arachne hadn't noticed Maka or then just didn't care but either way, Asura's scarves took her by the waist and laid on the floor, far away from them.

They tumbled down when Asura bit Arachne's exposed throat and a loud thump was heard. She laughed and dragged the coat halfway from his shoulders before actually seeing his face.

"What a sweet boy you are." She laughed again but her eyes widened as she had moved a few black hairs revealing a gleaming third eye. A mark of her lifelong enemy, the enigma of a warlord.

Maka just watched.

"You..."

"Me." Asura frowned and continued what he had been doing. Arachne never saw it really coming but this man was no beginner in pleasuring acts. He made her moan with his hands that trailed, touched and caressed. He made her scream with the brutality of some of these acts.

Maka watched as the spider twitched in its own web and the room had gotten a new scent. She scratched her nose a bit and sneezed. Wet sounds and flesh hitting against flesh could be heard but she didn't care. She saw a dead spider in the corner of the room, it's children staring at Maka with all of their eight eyes.

Arachne's dress had already been opened as she forced herself to answer the thrusts the man gave. The lights danced with shadows and the room was the only thing in the world. Maka saw how the spider's legs and back raised from the floor and she shrieked.

The shadows were quiet in the room even though just a few moment back, they had been dancing with three eyes.

"Why are you here...?" Arachne asked during the pants she gave. Asura gathered her up and raised her from the floor and onto his lap. Maka let a tiny noise from the corner and Asura glanced at her.

"Mum."

"Mummy is busy right now." Asura answered and entered the witch again. This time Arachne's back curved and she rode him and let out a breathy moan. Asura's hand trailed her hips and then both sides of her face before kissing the forehead and red electricity shot from his fingers.

"What a child you are!" Arachne shouted in euphoria as she felt him move. Her little spiders came from the corners of the room to watch the coupling and Asura bit Arachne's bared shoulder drawing blood. In the shadows his eyes were dull black as he found Maka again.

_´See, this is why some choose celibacy. They're afraid of this.´ _Maka blinked as if she had heard the sentence. She curled up and sucked her teeth a bit but kept glancing up from time to time. The day was setting when Arachne was let go and she dragged herself up. Staggering to her dresser, she took a brush from there and started brushing her hair. Asura sat against the wall, his finger was being squeezed by Maka's tiny little right hand. The candles were already burned through and the only light came from the window.

"Why is a warlord walking down these streets?" Arachne asked with a mellow and spent voice.

"I did not seek a tryst like this. All I wanted was a wet nurse for her." Asura said and overturned Maka who let out a distressed sound. Arachne watched this past her shoulder with raised eyebrows.

"Me?"

"Yes, you'd be perfect." He caressed the child's head. She looked sleepy.

"I know nothing of taking care of children." Arachne smiled a forlorn smile. She put the brush down and walked to Asura. The warlord turned his head to look when Arachne leaned against him and closed her eyes. "I'm a witch. I know how to fight and cause misery. "

"So was her first one. She doesn't mind. I don't care if you're a homicidal madman. All I need is this." he trailed her breasts and Arachne slapped his hand away. Asura shivered and let his head fall to the other side. He felt tired but refreshed. Arachne batted her leashes at him and kissed his cheek and got up.

"It's time. I want to have my beauty sleep too." She opened the door for him and escorted him out but first helped him into his clothing. But when she looked at Maka, the baby saw no beauty in that face but a net carved from ice that stretched across her face, making her look monstrous.

"I do not bow to Death. Not to warlords. To no one." She hissed and her claws trailed Maka's cheek, making little red trail on their wake. Maka's eyes moistened but she didn't let out a sound.

* * *

No matter who it was, they couldn't believe what they heard when Asura and Mugen returned. Shinigami felt his nerves go over the edge and he wanted to smash the two of them against something hard and make them hurt.

"You had sex while she was in the same room?"

"Yes. She didn't mind. Not really. And I got a wet nurse for her." Asura said apathetically as if they were discussing the weather. Eibon crushed his new invention in his palm as he listened to their speech. It sounded horrifying to him.

"I really didn't think you could do it! But man was it a night to remember. I always love Trishas' little tits.." said Mugen who was clearly drunk. He was leaning against Asura who pocketed his hands in case they decided to wreck the other's neck.

"I_ thought _you went there with pure minds and duty clearly carved into your hands!" Shinigami shouted at them. Maka winced and started making noises. "Did it ever occur to you that that was not how it was supposed to be done? Asura, you're her bloody father! Isn't there a little voice in your head telling you that what you did was wrong?"

"No, but it's telling me many other things though..."

"You...You bloody whoring...!" Eibon was steaming, "She's a child with a year of real life experience! Of course she cannot say what she likes and what she doesn't! And of all the places, you take her into that vile house that should be shut down for good!"

"Careful, You use them too. I've seen it." Mugen laughed, leaving Eibon in his rage. The scientist stumped away not to be seen on that day anymore.

"Mad?"

"I agree." Asura hoisted Maka up and then down before jumping up to his candle level, unaware of the glances the others sent his way.

* * *

**A/N: **Brothels are clearly not the place for children- who says so? But seriously, I don't think they cared in the 13th century since infanticides were common in brothels and villages if the harvest was not well and the weather was too much to feed too many mouths and we all know that the contraception at the time wasn't the best so children were born and killed. Also girl children, if born from a prostitute, were kept because they could become new prostitutes but boys were killed. Also the alleys that contained the brothel and adult entertainment are supposed to be called red-light districts but I don't think they called them such in a villages where they lived in the sticks. So the red-light business is more from the big cities. Now the brothel business is important actually to this story so I beg your pardon and please read all about them carefully.

_radande_*- is a tree spirit in Swedish mythology. They are bound to the tree they're born to and are also known as _tree folks_.


	9. Folklore of Bulgaria  Samodiva

**EDIT: **Christ, I'm so sorry for this you guys but I've relearnt my history and it seems I have the wrong capital for Bulgaria here. I fixed it from Sofia to Tarnovo so now everything should be OK.

**Author's note: **Snow and ice came. And I tried to go skiing in waist deep snow. You can guess how well that went. Still, I managed to make a path for the animals since a bunny started following me halfway through.

* * *

Empty Cradle

_9. Folklore of Bulgaria - Samodiva_

Fall was on its way as the leaves fell off from the trees and small folk gathered crops from the fields and market places whirred with life as bets were made, voluntary work started and more ridiculous offerings sprung one after another. The prize for cabbages and pumpkins had risen from three pounds to six, but Asura had to say he hadn't missed the long and loud exchange of curses and words as people tried to haggle in the crowd with the salesmen and women, who shouted back at them just as rudely.

And then he asked himself, what the hell was he doing in the middle of Bulgaria with summer long behind his back and Maka on his shoulders not even earning a stare.

"Nice to know some men work like us too," one woman had snorted at him as she had been carrying two children. One on her back and one against her breast.

This place had twice as many people as the candle land's little village had and that meant twice as many annoying tanners, shopkeepers, immigrants, thieves, charlatans and magicians.

He had to hold a sigh when he navigated through the crowd and tried to hold Maka on his shoulders so that she wouldn't fall off and be crushed by the pedestrians and wooden carriages pulled by mules and donkeys. Horses were too expensive now that Bulgarians had trouble stirring in their country, which resulted in skyrocketing prizes.

After the peasant rebellion, the country had forsaken its king and named a Tsar, Ivaylo. It was nice to know not only his own sad country was stupid but also not the first to have a king and then name a Tsar. Asura thought he ought to feel more proud, but he had came from slums far more in the East than this little pathetic country in which people kept shoving him from all sides.

"This is getting ridiculous," Excalibur complained. Asura and he had been set to guard the southern part of the city of Ruse. In fact southern could screw off. They were responsible for the whole Ruse province with it's neighbor Provinces Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Targovishte and Razgrad. Right now, the city of Ruse seemed to flower with life even though it was far too close to the border of Bulgaria with Mongols invasions happening intermittently - the number of times the border had been crossed increasing alarmingly.

"The area's too large for the two of us. And what's deal with separating us again? Dividing never ends up well in children's stories, so what if the enemies decide to pay a visit now? We can't hold them all out."

"We'll kill them if that happens."

"That's too brutal. And shouldn't you be doing something to her? Isn't the heat getting to both of you?" Excalibur wiped sweat from his brows and looked on, "I need water."

"This isn't even the Wild West and you're already complaining about heat?"

"What do you know of Wild West. I'm an Englishman; A noble and one who spends his days drinking tea and writing books."

"An useless Englishman if you ask me. No one's going to read that book anyway. Give it up and spend your time wisely like I do." Asura looked forward and spotted a pickpocket on the road. It came towards them and snapped Excalibur's purse from his pocket without the weapon realizing it while Asura delicately sidestepped and met the thief's gaze for a second before the boy ran away. He averted his eyes and let the thief go.

"We better head to Ivanovo. There's nothing happening here," he remarked but Excalibur shook his head.

"No can do. I'm spent and not leaving this city until I'm commanded to do otherwise."

"Have you ever heard of a thing called initiative?" Asura casually said but was shoved away from the man who gave him a scowl.

Maka was dozing off above his head and it was too hot for Asura to shut his scarves around his head so he kept them open and they offered shade to her sensitive skin. He didn't dare to take off his blazer but he had shed his shoes in favor of sandals, which proved to be a wrong choice since everyone kept stepping on them and his toes.

Asura jumped onto a wooden carriage that went by and from there atop to the roofs.

He wanted to get away from this city, from these people and from the stench they carried with them. There was no relaxing in here and nowhere to set your mind at ease. It was just plain city with little hills at the background and grit among the buildings getting into his nose and making him sneeze.

The baby breath's blew his hair slightly and her grip tingled his scalp, making him want to scratch it.

All these people carried shining souls within them. Asura had to just look more closely and attentively to see traits and their plans and what kind of souls they were. All were human and normal. No matter what secrets they carried inside, his eyes saw them as he sat on the tiles, which absorbed the heat from the sun, making him drench in sweat.

It happened so slowly and delicately that Asura didn't even notice but when he looked past the people and buildings, his eyes saw more than they should. A frown etched on his features and Maka's grip tightened on him.

_´This heat is unbearable...´ _Asura slouched and wiped sweat away from his face with the back of his hand. Three vertical eye tattoos stared back at him. The warlord let one madness bug free, just for the fun of it, and followed it with his eyes as it disappeared from the roof and scuttled to the dark alleys, full of beggars, orphans and more thieves. He wouldn't be surprised to see a few mongols there either. They always stood out with their clothes - just like Eibon.

* * *

No doubt Excalibur's personality fitted in with these people just as much as his clothing did. He hated how his path was constantly blocked or altered but he never snapped at anyone.

Maybe he could grab a girl and have some fun.

Then he felt for his purse and realized it was gone.

"Dammit!" He cursed loudly and furiously looked back and forth, left and right, but saw no thief in close radius. Now he hated this place even more. Excalibur's gloomy thoughts didn't let him be discouraged, when he continued stomping about the city, the mass of people becoming even more oppressing, and he kept his hands to his sides; He couldn't bear to lose them too. Asura had disappeared somewhere and he couldn't see the other - not that he hoped he would. The man was probably miles away, being the only one with Eibon and Shinigami who _could_ fly after all.

He wanted to have a meister who he could give wings...they could fly to the sunset together and babble about romantic things and converse about his legend. It would be a delightful change to his days now.

Excalibur sighed.

The colloquium in Sofia was going as planned. No complaints or commands to retreat had been made as of yet and Excalibur had faith in Eibon's negotiating skills. Shinigami-sama himself should have been in charge of the larger Provinces in south and southwest. He was the only one who had enough power to extend his soul network to that large of an area without any trouble.

Actually Excalibur wasn't sure of that since he had an equal and that said equal had just cut his soul off from Excalibur's so now the sword weapon had this blasted big area all to himself. It made him want to cry.

He drew his soul wavelength back to himself and covered only the area of two provinces – those closest to the border. He shouldn't do that but he was only a man and men got their own limits when it came to power.

Now where in the seven hells had Asura gone? He'd curse him once that free-lord decided to return!

"Oranges for seven pounds and three crowns! Three oranges for six pounds and five for ten!" A saleswoman shouted and if Excalibur were Mugen, he'd probably haggle. But he had no need for the woman's oranges nor any food since he'd lost his money and the heat was killing him.

* * *

Asura strolled among the slums. Their rickety houses and filthy alleys were the least of his worries as more than once someone had dared to try to steal the brat. He had scared them off and broken one arm from a man.

Starvation and the lack of water were these people's problems, not his, but his churning stomach told another story.

The child was still asleep after Asura had killed two beggars that no one was likely to miss and filled his stomach with souls instead of water and buns, which were traveling around from hand to hand and had questionable filling. He didn't dare to touch them.

For the past two hours he had been following that little madness bug of his and had come to a conclusion that it needed modifying. He had seriously thought it'd take him to somewhere brilliant but when it had skipped the last seen sunflower field and came here, he wasn't so sure. It might have been a sign that those monks in the Buddhism temples always nagged him about – the signs were everywhere and you just needed to squint to see them. Well when he squinted, he saw more beggars, a dying old woman and reeking men who looked at him with angry eyes that spoke of pain on many levels. He didn't think he looked rich at all but clearly better off than them. Good for him, he loved pissing beggars off. Just loved it.

Seriously, he could be killed here and no one would know.

"Would you buy an apple?" a small child asked him. The apple was red and it had worms carving their ways out from many different places. Asura suppressed a shiver of disgust but hid it well. Maka rubbed her yes as she woke and dozily stared the red apple. She didn't reach out fortunately.

"_Ana_!-" probably the child's mother came to get her. She spoke in such speed that Asura had a hard time getting she wasn't suffocating on anything. The words came and went but he didn't understand her accent, nor the language so he kept his mouth shut. Maka stared at the mother like she was doing something incredibly interesting and rested her head on his. Soon the woman stopped bowing and frantically looking away and just dragged herself and her _Ana_ away to one of the rickety houses. The slums regained their quietness very quickly after that.

The smell followed where ever Asura went and it was probably beginning to stick to his blazer too like ingrained filth.

"Come forth, come forth. The tale of Samodivi will begin..."

He stopped. This was a language and words he knew and could understand.

"Come forth now. My tale will begin..."

"Samodivi?" Asura murmured. He had never heard of those. Maybe they were local gods or worshiped subjects like statues. The Buddha statues in the temple he had spent a few years living in were always prayed to and incense lit in front of them. Except there were no statues nor the stifling smell of incense here that burned in your noise hours after someone had extinguished the sticks. Just an old lady, sitting on a keg with dozen adults and children sitting in a ring right around her. Asura looked from afar but couldn't hear properly so he went closer.

The old lady opened her eyes and he saw that she was blind.

Milky eyes that were wet and red at the corners graced him with understanding and age and she smiled, definitely not at him only, but to all of them.

_´This one...´ _Asura opened his third eye, which had been closed to avoid mass panic in the streets. It stared the old woman and saw the tendrils of mellow wavelength coming off from her.

She would have been a fine meister in her younger days.

"Now, I shall tell you a story of Vida and her stag of serpents," Asura promptly sat down with the rest of them and listened. It brought forth memories. He forgot the mission for a moment and looked attentive for her to continue. Maka gripped his hair and stared the ants on the ground. They were carrying morsels of something.

"Now there's a tale, not quite so old but a tale it shall remain. The younger folks may not know it but the older do for those who have seen Vida's graceful figure and heard her sing shall not forget it for their lives."

"As it happens, Vida, as many other wild female nymphs, dwelled in Pirin mountains. She liked to think the mountain matched her strength as she was as strong as beautiful and a good singer too. She flew in the skies on a bird, larger than you've ever seen and visited the ground as a beetle to feel the rocks under and see the roots of trees more clearly. Oh yes, but usually she took the form of a woman, riding a stag, her hair full of leaves from spring and summer."

"The stag's antlers were wide and huge and they had serpents falling out of them. Oh yes, and some say the stag had drown his white antlers in the moon that was brought down and milked by the Samodivi. But that was way before this tale and maybe Vida effaced the milk away from the antlers as it is told that they shone in the night and Vida's arrival was told before she came. Ah yes, but the stag itself had grass snakes as reins and serpents as stirrups. Some bit Vida's legs but she remained on the stag, riding her way across the forests of Pirin mountains and across the moon. Some poisoned her fingers so she could never release the grip on the reins but Vida, this beautiful yet stubborn Samodiva, deemed it as a test of her strength and didn't let go. Not for the time she was alive and still is. Still she rides among those mountains and scorns at her fellow Samodivi for she's the strongest as she likes to think. But is she? Hm? You may think on that."

"But one day, using her arrow and bow, she killed a male singer, Ivė. That I do not know why, but maybe she was jealous of his singing voice - or then not. Maybe he was more powerful than her but who knows. After the killing, Vida flew to the moon with her milky horn stag and serpents. They bit her hands and legs and poison flowed in her blood stream making her regret her doings for a moment. But that moment planted a seed of doubt in her heart so she went to the curative gardens of Magda Samovila. Reviving him, she let him go and sing again but Ivė never again descended from the moon and it is said he still sings there nowadays."

She coughed and smiled at the end. Asura blinked and jerked upwards. A strong person living in mountains? Would Vida's soul taste like the milk from the moon or like dirt from the ground. Maybe it'd feel like fresh air or then have the scent of Magda's garden. Asura wanted to find out, but Pirin mountains resided on the other side of the country: in Blagoevgrad province.

"Would you like to go?" Asura asked and took Maka from the top of his head and closed his third eye. He had forgotten it open when he had started to listen. "Do you think he'd mind to guard this area alone?" Asura referred to Excalibur and created a sideways glance towards the end of the alley.

"Bih," Maka gurgled and reached for his wrist. Her grip was strong but Asura shook it off easily and was about to stand up when an old hand descended on his child's head.

"I could have mistaken her for Vida herself...so earthly child," the old lady chuckled and patted her head. A few children remained on the spot but they were talking among themselves and drawing to the sand with sticks.

"What happened to the stag in the end?" He couldn't help it. Curiosity was making his stomach clench. The woman smiled.  
"She still rides upon it, serpents and all."

"I see," she seemed to take her leave after that and Asura stood properly up now. He patted his clothes so that the dust would leave and let one of his scarves take Maka. She liked to be held by them much more than be on his shoulders. Anyway his neck was beginning to tire because she weighted a lot. That Arachne witch spoiled her with her foods.

"_Ah, but you must remember a child needs a lot of food! Otherwise she'll become a midget and you wouldn't want that." _

That whole sentence pissed him off somehow. It was like Maka was his own child but the fact that she wasn't didn't bother him the slightest.

"Why am I keeping you again?" Asura asked and brought the baby close to his face. She gave him a weird face and drool was slipping out from her mouth. "Shouldn't your teeth stop that already?" He forced the gums apart with his fingers and felt her resistance. Feeling for any kinda of bumps on the way, he discovered only four teeth were growing now. Two at the front and two under, quite apart.

"I won't forgive you if you become sparse teeth. I'll disown you." He retreated his fingers and wiped them against his blazer.

* * *

The mountains offered a nice change of scenery from the slums and the congestion of Ruse. He supposed he should feel quite taken with the view of sunflower fields and snowy mountaintops but all he could think currently was the nice smell that hanged in the air. He had flown miles from the northern parts of Bulgaria to the southwest of Blagoevgrad. Maka had been quiet during the journey; seeing the sky and world behind the red tinted sphere they traveled in.

"I suppose Gerda's in charge here," Asura muttered to himself and tried to avoid area's with lots of people. The Aboriginal warlord, Gerda Hausa, was very quiet one but did his job well. Too well for Asura's liking as he hid in the bushes and shut down his wavelength almost completely as Gerda walked through the forest he was currently residing in.

"Bah," Maka dropped her head backwards.

"Bah," Asura agreed and moved onwards to ascend the mountain. As the other warlord passed by them quietly, without as much as batting an eyelash at them. Asura thought they were pretty safe then.

"What are you doing?" suddenly Gerda was standing right beside him with that apathetic expression on his face.

Asura quickly turned his head so he could see the other properly, "Perhaps you want to give me an heart attack?" Well at least he had thought they were safe but he had to congratulate himself for not jumping. This man was one the most offensive men ever.

"You're supposed to be in Ruse with Excalibur." Hausa's hands were behind his back and he was giving Asura a look that told nothing.

"I'm just strolling around. You know how I can't stay put too long?"

"I know you can stay still longer than I can." He snorted, "Get back to your post. The colloquium should end in a few days of time."

"And I wish to spent that time wisely. "

"Which you're apparently not doing."

"Seriously, go to hell," Asura scowled and stomped away from the scene, leaving the apathetic Aboriginal where he was standing. Weird the man didn't start following them. Maka's weird noises annoyed him now and he wished them to cease immediately.

He sincerely hoped she would grow up soon.

Maybe she'd end up looking like her mother. Who knew what color that hair would turn into. It could be red or blond or something in between. Maybe even ash blond. Asura narrowed his eyes as he picked a bug from Maka's head. They weren't even deep in the woods yet and the air was so much more fresher in here than in Ruse. He wished to hear none of that language or stories any longer but missed his candle on the huge wax wall.

"You want to go home too don't you?"

"Maaam!" Maka laughed at him. Asura found a tree trunk which he could rest against.

With the autumn came autumn wind that cleaned his lungs and made the child shiver. The yellow leaves fell onto the ground but the canopy was still good to hold the sunshine out. Only a few sunshine rays were let trough and they all missed Asura's relaxed figure. No noise, no weird stench, no stories and no Vida - the Samodiva who rode a stag.

Asura felt himself fall asleep before he even realized it.

* * *

Yes, without even realizing it, Shinigami had agreed to host the colloquium in this blasted palace that reeked of vanity and utterly rich personality. With the pillars all around, corridors mixing with rooms that had no doors and windows. Ah, the blasted windows! He hated how he could see the city from a WINDOW!

Now he knew he needed vacation.

"I trust you'll take care of those rascals before I have their heads on a plate," The Tsar, Ivaylo, seethed in his another rich furniture. It could almost be called a throne. His accent was thick when talking to Death and sometimes the older and cloaked man had to strain his ears under the black cloak to hear properly.

"Let's wait for what your negotiator comes up with mine." Eibon was in the next room with the country's strategist and negotiator, which left him with the Tsar, "Your army needs to come halfway with us. There are no impurities within the souls of these men and the rebellion-"

"The rebellion is already over!" Ivaylo shouted. His Orthodox robes and the golden egg with a cross on it were discarded on the armrest of his 'throne' and he looked furious. Well as furious as a religious man could get without any regal robes on. Honestly, the man seemed to just have come out from bed with his cranky mood and untamed mane and that bear.

"I am the Emperor, the Tsar! You can call me whatever it is you wish Death, but I rule here. I will not hand my troops over to someone who wishes to seize my power and feed those uncivilized mongols with it!"

_´Do you mind if I call you mindless idiot then, my lord?´ _Death sarcastically thought in his mind but tried to calm the Tsar down a bit. They could get no business done when he was in this mood.

"Your country's still in the middle of rebellion and if you do not agree, then you'll probably lose the throne next year already."

"I knew I should have executed them all when I usurped this throne. It is my place! My rule, and I'll not have you telling me what to do. But fine, I'll give you 300 foot soldiers in place of your magic tricks. You better protect this nation while I'm here," Ivaylo growled at Death. Honestly, he could snap this mortal man's neck if he wished to and still it wasn't even amusing to watch that beard move accordingly to the Tsar's moods.

"As promised," Death agreed and exited the palace hall. He couldn't stand this place. Shinigami strengthened his wavelength and spread it around Sofia's city. It went to the neighbor provinces too and he could feel Gushiken's interest, Gerda's suspicion, Eibon's irritation in the next room and Asura's-

Shinigami-sama almost fell on his mask and lost his balance, his claws gripping the wall beside him, "What?"

* * *

Maka watched as the pretty thing came closer from the green smudges. Bushes he called them, his bad man. And from there came a very beautiful not-man. It was a weird thing it rode too. A thing that had white horns and slithering things on it. The not-man looked more pretty than the spider or the other older woman who had weird eyes. Maka glanced at her parent and came to a conclusion – she was more pretty than her bad man.

"What walks on my lands and dares to sleep in my home," The not-man's voice sounded weird. It was different from normal voice. The way it was smooth and firm, like it was bended wood. A wall which you suddenly crashed into.

Maka stared at her, transfixed.

"You human dare to trespass. I should force my snakes on you. Have you take these reins and stirrups onto your feet and allow you to experience pain," she said, looking down at her. She had bush for hair and spider webs for escaping strands. White cloth covered her other breast and the other was visible. The cloth was tied onto one of her shoulders and it descended like a dress, a toga, to her ankles. Its helms were full of pressed ornamental figures and shapes and it darkened when it hit the ground.

Maka noticed she had leaves for eye-lashes and branches as crown.

"You're but a child. A fighter you shall be blessed as, upon this mountain of Pirin and Magda's garden." The stag threw its head around like a horse and whined. The not-man reined it down with series of whistling that sounded like a drop of water and wind on earth. She dismounted her mount and descended upon her, the snake reins coming off from the stag and onto her bush of hair that was green.

"You're a blessed child," she said and touched Maka's forehead with her knuckles."With wings like that, you ought to fly around a bit. Do not be restricted by this body of flesh. Fly my child, fly."

"Gaa-ah," Maka reached for her no-man's fingers and squeezed tightly. She had such a cold stare but such warm hands with short nails. They reminded her of milk that came from the spider's bosom and the weird eyes' breast.

"I'll stretch your wings out for you now but you must learn soon," she smiled for the first time and sang. Sang so beautifully Ivė would have been left second and the murder of the man would have been forgotten forever. But Vida didn't draw her bow this time and Maka's soul matured in the light of the sound.

"Vida," the baby spoke in Asura's arms. "Vida, Vida, Vida!"

"See, you've already learned one name." Her knuckles left her forehead and Maka looked baffled. The stag looked around and ate the grass on the ground. Vida, the powerful Samodiva, glanced at the man sleeping next to the baby. His soul was red and thrumming with something, which drew all the uneasiness from her to him. Vida didn't frown but let her hands guide her to the man, the third eye closed. She felt his soft hair and his soul but there was no room to stretch there.

"Fear...how I pity you," she glanced at the child on the man, "How you'll color her. What a pity indeed," she shook her head and Asura's head dropped. He stopped breathing and moved no more. Vida mounted her stag with her serpents and the reins attached themselves back onto her again and she galloped off into the forest. Maka turned around and reached out to tug Asura's black white hair.

"Mam..."

* * *

**Author's note: **Wild West started around 1830, yes, BUT that doesn't mean that Asura and his companions didn't go to America in 1200s and have a few fights with the native people over the canyons. It's completely plausible in this story. Also I don't have a single idea whether Ivaylo was really Orthodox but since he was Bulgarian then I'm just assuming he was.

Uh, Bulgarians. Don't take it personally if I messed up your folklore. It's just nice to write about them once in a while but if you have corrections to make then you can PM me.


	10. Trouble with Shishman

**A/N: I CAN WRITE AGAIN! Damn writer's block, ruining my pace (actually it's more like a _wordblock_ since I already know what chapter contains what). Oh, and a new character is here! Gerda's weapon :) The historical year is 1278 and sorry for the pov changes.**

* * *

Empty Cradle

_10. Trouble with Shishman_

They were feasting among the palace guards in their barracks. There was salted herring that made wine taste bloody sweet on the tongue and was easily drowned cask by cask. Tiered seats made with cedar bended under their weight as they laughed with rancorous play and strong airborne smell of sweat.

Cutlet from veal was served in front of Bashura as he groped for the wine casket going around. The food was laid on a bronze plate with elderberries and sauce and looked delicious to the famished warrior who had just walked half the Dobrich province. It was nothing compared to the figs and peppers of his favourite foods but the cutlet did look very greasy and appeasing there on the plate. And he hadn't eaten in a while.

His had been Dobich, Silistra Shumen and Varna. They were the ones littered closer to the coast, where herring was plentiful and it could be marketed freely. Of course Varvara, a fishing girl, had caught her own catch just this afternoon when the sun was high up and had burned herself. The red and itching girl had come to the barracks with hampers full of herring. They had been decanted almost immediately and were being served with heady wine, straight from the cellars of the nearby inn.

Bashura heard of usurers, of the two Tsars, of the Mongols, of things needed to be sold and of the coastline news. Boats made from the same cedar tree the barracks' tables were made of, were making their way along the trading lines in the Black Sea. He'd also heard that Zlatan's wife was expecting.

"They'll have golden curls. She fucked a sailor from the North and his own son too as a greeting. Then Zlatan went and did her too. She's all round and her belly's bigger than my own." The sailor's jibe was met with laughter and bets. Golden curls at Bulgaria's coastline didn't, however, interest Bashura, who was piling berries under his tongue. They burst and their juice flowed down his throat like the sweet wine they served here.

Danube's sweet sounds filled the barracks and made men rise onto the tiered seats as someone picked up a Gadulka and started playing a gracious melody of sorts. Someone joined in singing and soon the barracks were filled with drunken stupor and modified horo dancing.

"_Unmarried old man, red-faced old man,_

_Just like this, just like that,_

_has put his cap askew,_

_Just like this, just like that,_

_To the one side, to the other side,  
Just like this, just like that,  
And went to the village,  
Just like this, just like that,_

_Just like this, just like that  
And took place in the ring dance,  
Just like this, just like that,  
In the ring dance among the young girls,  
Just like this, just like that._

_In the ring dance among the young girls,  
Just like this, just like that,  
All the young girls have run away,  
Just like this, just like that._

_Only the youngest has stayed,  
Just like this, just like that,  
The youngest, called Angelina,  
Just like this, just like that._

_E-e-e-eh  
Just like this, just like that"_

"Play _Matilda_!"

"Aye, _Matilda_ for me and my wife!"

"Vida's fires!"

"Aye! And Vida's fires with Aleksandra's Many Men!"

Bashura stayed to listen through _Matilda_, _Aleksandra's Many Men_ and _Vida's Fires_. The songs played next were accompanied with tamboura and kaval. _Aj Da Idem_ _Jano_ and _Strigat_ were heard next, though only a handful of men could sing along. Bashura had cleaned his bronze plate twice and licked it clean and had downed five goblets of the fine heady wine, when they started singing _Tervelska_. It still rang in his ears when he headed for the door through excited, dancing, soldiers, who were swinging their hips and flinging the hems of their tunics, as if to copy and brag about the women they had met.

"_Marincica, beautiful firl!_

_You sing beautifully, and we hear you far away, _

_The shepherd heard me in the green forest, _

_He was playing his caval and dropped it"_

_Marincica_ was in his head and he whistled the song.

* * *

The wind was beating down on his face and everything rang in his ears. The sun was heating his skin just nicely but his golden piercings felt cold when he watched the dour stone peak of Vihren right in front of him. The midday sun was warming only the northern side of the great rock and the other was a desolate, dark place, which is probably many a time colder than the other. There was no snow on top of this one and only grass accompanied Vihren along its long, rocky pathways. Like all the other mountains, it looked like Vihren had been ripped apart from its unknown other part and abraded with sandy winds and snow water that came in spring. The tree line was long below him and Gerda turned around to face a steep hill going down. The rock was white under his soles.

Yet something unexplainable happened to him. He cannot explain what it was but he felt a tug a few seconds ago. Something was put out like a desert fire, when one uses sand. Now there is no fire nor life.

This perplexed him and he stopped his ascend for descend. Pines were there to greet him as he walked along a mountain path, his thoughts upon Alba and Asura, as he meets the first nomads with their sheep.

_The world has become mute for Alba._

_Mute for she cannot feel or hear sounds moving past her skin and ears,_

_Mute for she cannot hear another forcefully taken breath, the blood staining her hands with grains of harvest._

_She believes she dies but she's not that intimate._

Alba raised her head - her night black hair coated with gore and the men withdrew from the fields. The rabbit in her hand has a broken neck, which made it sway in her grip as she dangled it in front of herself. The monks filed out from a monastery (_Rila, she remembers now, it's Rila_) a hundred footsteps below her. Her skin was dark and it was heating up with the sun as she gazed at pine tree mountains behind her. The mountain on which the monastery is built upon (attached to its side more likely) has terrace fields of oat, wheat and rye planted above it on the mountain's side. They were not flooded but were dry and Alba was standing among a field of wheat, its golden glow enveloping her.

She was, at the moment, surprisingly close to Asura and tried to be erudite with what she had learned.

She jumped down the terrace fields, threw the rabbit at theigúm'en (abbot) who has been kind enough to reserve a room for her return.

"I want broth with rye breath. I'll bring guests." He waves her off jovially.

The distance is several versts and travelling that would take a few days, if the extra days were not counted.

_World is mute. Something, which she had exposed herself to and made a part of herself had been stolen and not given back. The birds left the trees at the forest edge she was walking towards to._

Alba cannot fly. She cannot run very fast nor can she use the means of witchcraft to travel around. She takes a great jump from the branch she's currently perched upon and lands swiftly on another right in front of her. The branches and canopies are great with over two hundred year old trees and she avoids jumping at spruces, staying above most of the canopy so she can see the scenery in front of herself. It is a dense sea of spruces and hardwoods with high mountains creating waves. The evergreen needles pinch her soles and face and arms, when she accidentally jumps left and faces a dilemma, where she has no other choice but jump to the nearest spruce. It is another yet so unpleasant experience and another added negative point to the wickedness of Bulgaria.

Autumn resin gets stuck on her hands and they feel sticky when she next grabs a tree trunk. She can also smell it. Soft rain that cascaded down yesterday left a trail behind it and its mountain morning dew softened this resin. Gigantic spruces are all that are there for now and it will be a while until she reaches Rilska river and heads for west, but she can still see a tiny speck of red roof tiles among the waves of greenery when she turns back. The Rila monastery is still too close for her to be this far.

This will be yet another wearing journey by foot.

It is autumn so it is understandable that the days are growing shorter and the warm summer winds are no longer here to warm wayward walkers. The roads are muddy when she exists the thickest parts of the forest, when Rila has been long behind her. Here, there are only fields and hillocks and rams with sheep. There are no carts around that can ease her travel and she stays with a fleck of nomads, who travel in the widespread steppes. Their tents are small so she sleeps outside with their sheep and it is by luck that the night is warm and she was given a warm bowl of mutton and a sheep wool blanket.

They travel together the next day. The shepherds and her. There are two who escort her to the next village from where she can continue. In the end it takes over five days to walk there and by then she can already feel Gerda. She is not even close to central Pirin but the journey takes many weeks by feet. Though it would be faster if she had a horse, Stob village has nothing to offer her except burned roofs and silt from Rilska.

"When will the next boat leave?" Alba asked a timber man carrying a hammer.

"Depends on how far you want. The one for Kocherinovo left this morning. The next one will probably take sail in three days or so." It is a relatively small river so she understands that not a lot of boats sail here. But that doesn't mean she isn't indignant after; three days is too long. The villagers still offer her a hovel and soup with a loaf of bread for all her troubles and payment for helping them reconstruct the gardens.

On the second day a small fishing boat arrived at the pier followed by a bit better sized cog. After the cog had docked safely, they began to unload it immediately from its wood, iron nail and leather cargo. Around the evening, however, the sky grew dark and omens of an autumn storm were seen in the air. Alba opened an edging of the leather nailed to the edges of a window slightly and peeped out. The river overflowed and the cog ship depended on dangerous waves.

She bit her lower lip and put the leather edging back to protect the insides of this hovel from the downpour outside.

In the morning the damages were clarified. The was a great hole on the bottom of the cog and repairing it would take at least a week or two. There was no cargo on board, but the cargo hold was completely filled with river water and silt. Alba watched how men put logs crosswise at the riverbank and made them form a line to the first cedar trees they came across. The vessel was towed to the shore by brawn and the rolling logs underneath it, and to the trees, where it was attached to their trunks.

"We ought to start building scaffolding," one bearded carpenter grunted next to her. Alba decided to travel the versts between the damned little jerkwater town Stob and Kocherinovo by feet.

Kocherinovo was no closer to highways than Stob; glades and fields opened boundlessly with their ample hills and further back rose a high – old – snow-capped mountain range, but it was clearly a better faring riverside town that had trading ships leaving its riverbed.

Piers had been built in such a way that one was always shared by four vessels – for largest cogs it was enough that two could fit one pier, one cog on the other side and the other on the other, the pier between them.

Upon arrival at twilight, the streets were almost empty and houses' windows were shut. Alba jumped on a certain house's shingles and staggered due to a gust of wind. The weather was cooling afresh; at the side of the mountain range and on the glades the wind blew ever briskly.

The next day a ship, which she had to embark, arrived to the quay. It had three masts – a customized cog, with a weird shallop following its trail. The cog was painted crimson red with ornate golden and green leaves and flowers decorating its exterior surface. The shallop's paint was peeling off and it looked like half of its parts had been stolen and replaced the originals. Both of the ships threw thick hemp ropes to the sailors on the piers and shouting ensued. When asked, the shallop's captain promised to take her to her destination that nightfall.

* * *

"And I am supposed to pay?" Shinigami asked the groom whose outstretched hand was empty and the other held a manure fork.

"No gold coins, but if you'd be having copper and a couple of compensations for the ponies. Your warrior used Brii time and again I heard."

"But this Tsar's power doesn't reach this land's northern back ends and cities, does it?" He was never too sure with these courtiers and kings placing their claims upon lands. The groom turned his head from right to left, then again from left to right – troubled. The information couldn't be denied but neither did it have any strong – nonexistent – guarantee.

"Are you telling me that his Highness, the King of the Second City, supposedly sent the bill aback since he couldn't be bothered nor could your cabbage king pay it?" Death scoffed.

"It is a different story every time someone asks and depends on who you ask, milord. This came from the Cappage Lord.

"Cabbage Lord_?_" Death uttered a laugh.

"_Bardokva_," the groom agreed with a better pronunciation.

"So it's that now..." Death did not like how Excalibur, that lazy and utterly useless twat, used the kingdom's resources and did not take care of the mess he left behind. In his search for complacency and comfort he had _rented_ a pony without, however, paying a single coin. He'd be facing a trial out of thievery, soon, when these people caught his recalcitrant warrior (ponce more likely). But this was already two days old news, as the rider with the message had reached their gates on the third of August, when the colloquium had reached new levels in festiveness.

"Well take it then." Death opened his previously empty fist that had now all the needed things held in it. The groom took them and put them in his pocket, leaning against his manure fork.

The sleight of it went unheeded, though it was remarkable how they climbed to the palace. The sunset glow coloured walls created ever present and still shades that Shinigami used to travel around. They walked into one made by the robust castle wall and found themselves in the inner yard of the Tsar's palace.

"With which lord should me speak with? Milord or the Cabbage King?" The groom asked as they passed some palace guards.

"Cabbage." He didn't need anyone to know someone had crippled his workforce. The groom bowed and left him there, staring after him when he went to speak with palace guards, who let him have free passage of one secluded tunnel leading somewhere. The day was nearing evening with red and orange colouring his mask and deepening the black of his cloak.

_´I ought to take a bath. It's now or never at this rate.´ _He'd have to ask someone to fill his tub for him.

Noises and voices stressed with different kinds of accents carried off from the colloquium hall, when he jumped past it while travelling on the aged oaken rafters near the ceiling. They created an unobtrusive alley of secrecy that worked perfectly for him; the guards patrolling down on the stone floors walked by while he almost flew. Shinigami went past this corridor.

Ivaylo proved more ignoble than Shinigami had even dared to think. As Sofia's steeple announced the night hours, he received news of the colloquium; the Tsar's newest decree of law had passed. Brawny guards were posted at the city gates and sent walking among citizens, ordered to execute an order to ward off every non-native. While Shinigami pondered this in his room, well rested and fed, Eibon suffered from stress sweat in the heated colloquium room.

"You'll have a rebellion larger than we can deal with in your hands. Shishman spoke wisely, you ought to have listened." Eibon had urged for a more reasonable solution but the man remained firm, stroking his beard.

"Not necessarily. The Turkish merchants shall flee this city by dawn and Shishman will be going with them - back to Danube." Danube was a river that had population living on its banks and in its mountains. It proved very small recompense for someone who called himself noble and was of nobility, but better get a passage on a safe ship than be smuggled with Bulgarian onions halfway across Romania.

"Should the winds and forts favour him, you'll have an escapee."

"I will not. The Iron Gate is heavily manned and I've taken care to put a ransom on his head should he aid Byzantines or Mongols." Ivaylo carried himself over to a wooden cabinet that was inlaid with sapphires and other shining stones. They made the distinct shape of a cabbage in the candle light. On top of the cabinet was a wooden ewer full of wine and next to it was a goblet. He poured for himself and devoured a sun-dried tomato that was served in olive oil with pinches of strange spices floating on top. The Index spoke.

"The gorge is great but what if he'll get killed? I've heard there are raiders and archers posted here."

Eibon pointed at the map in front of them.

"_Zhelezni vrata* _will do their job. The north-western foothills will also have a retinue following the ship._" _The Tsar glanced at the map, frown in his eyes.

"They'd have to leave from the banks of Iskar and go to Pleven to reach Danube without any interruptions. The Iron Gate will only guard them for so long, and I fear what will happen to you, my Lord, if Shishman were to die,_" _Eibon said with the Index eyeing the maps. "There lies a heavily armed army near the border and the Border City of Pleven, near the battlements. Where the tributary quality of Iskar will end and Danube begins, a hundred men will follow Shishman. He'll be a political hostage who you'll have to ransom and buy back. His family is holding the little nobles of your court back and were he to arrive in Serbia, he'd have no friends there but only those who want his head."

"_Nemanjić*_ would like that no doubt_." _

_´This isn't about that, you fool.´ _Eibon was pained and bit his lip under his mask. He took a seat on a stool near the maps. _"_And what will become of his authority and hold in Vidin? You cannot let him go."

"He'll die if I were to let him stay. And he spoke against my orders and ordered those Turkish mats and Romanian whores despite Theodora's daughter." Eibon frowned but his mask hid this expression.

"Shishman has the power to sic these nobles at you." Eibon brought down a list containing a little over twenty names, all from renown families. "Consider him dealt when you have him with those onions. Otherwise this'll mean your own death. Michael will use this against you and I both know for certain where that'll lead."

The Tsar continued, waving his hand in a way of dismiss.

"You cannot afford a war."

"Enough of this. I grow tired of this debate of whether Shisman stays or not. He shall leave at the break of dawn and that'll be it." The man downed another cup of wine and two sun-dried tomatoes.

"You'll need someone to support you and the nobles," The index remarked. "Tarnovo will send out their troops no doubt and Michael will rise again."

"I'll end this when he does."

"Aye, it'll end but not well." The index swayed. It turned around in the air and changed its shape back to monkey-like when it was safely perched upon Eibon's shoulder.

Someone knocked the door outside. Not waiting for an answer, a gruff voice announced another presence outside the room. As the heavy doors opened, a palace guard with a long spear escorted an old man – an envoy – in. The man bore an escutcheon on his breast that made Ivaylo turn to a sour shade of prune even in the brazier light. He was bowed to and handed a piece of rolled parchment with the same escutcheon burned onto a red waxen seal.

* * *

Alba and Gerda had arrived to the central Vihren one little after the other.

Gerda, who had been closest, had arrived first with about a day's advance. The roads from nearest quay to the mountain range of Vihren were in a questionable condition – it was difficult to walk in the roadways and elsewhere was mud that got stuck to Alba's shoes too many times.

It was not difficult to travel to central Vihren from Vihren's peak, but finding two people there without help proved to be a problem. It was not infirmity in question but the fact that they couldn't get any connection to either Asura or his child. Gerda was more troubled by Maka's would-have-been state than by Asura's might-be-even-true death. God spare him, a child couldn't have survived all these days alone.

Then Alba arrived a day later, at night, when the stars twinkled brightly in the autumn sky and there was a small incipient freeze. Gerda's self-made bonfire had a merry fire crackling in it and the flames coloured Alba's approaching figure orange and licked her clothes' hem, when she sat down with a 'thump'.

"Good evening."

"Good evening." Gerda glanced at his sister and then turned his gaze back to view the flames. They made his eyes dry.

"Can you see anything?" Alba asked and stretched her arms. The fire seemed to be dancing to her, cracking and burning and plain, but Gerda had always been able to read their movements – interpret fire. The blaze suffused the original colours in his eyes and made them pit black.

He had read many things as a child, sometimes only to annoy others and mayhap even search solutions to the problems that came with living in hinterlands, in desert and with their nomadic troupe. The dryness was forever and no rains poured; nights were as cold as freezes were in Europa and snake bites killed suddenly in sleep, their fangs going through a child's plump, dried and fragile skin and adults' calloused hands ripped them apart from their scions. They ate snakes every fortnight. The habit of cinching something around their ankles had died along the tenth year after leaving their little troupe.

Some had nominated Gerda the Fire Shaman.

"No. In here they tell me nought. All has been zilch, the journey and all, and both have become meals for maggots."

"It takes time to journey around. Always," Alba reminded her sceptical brother and took nuts to eat from her breast pocket. Gerda had squirrel furs on his shoulders, each tied to each by a string and they hanging from behind his neck.

"We have vair to make clothes for her." Alba smiled. It'd not be their fault if Asura and his child were deceased.

"She's dead."

"But then we must find the body. You have not travelled here just to leave." She gave an askance glance at him and he shrugged, still quite unflinching with his opinion.

Alba retired for the night soon after. Gerda was left alone to watch the flames die. He staunched the embers by throwing sand on them long after she was already breathing evenly. The smoke was quickly gone and only burned smell permeated the little opening but soon that was gone too. Dwellers knew well to quench their fires in autumn for the ground and trees burned easily, trapping everyone inside the open forest.

Yet the capricious weather surprised. A gust of rain followed by winds in the early morning made the larks travel far south and the siblings were drenched. The crisp air afterwards told them of a cold day yet to come. The sun rose later than in summer so at cockcrow, when the first rays of light suffused golden white light and deep dark blue sky, they found a stomping, rife with vegetation but one that had clearly been used to the point where pebbles and decrepit earth showed from under the fallen red leaves.

"If you don't mind me saying, this is clearly a witch hut path," Alba commented, squatting and fingering the earth. There were no hoof prints to indicate animals passing by or horse usage, but the path smelt of spoiled milk and dew and curiously fresh summer leaves. Boughs and clusters of red berries of Rowan sprawled on the ground, some of the boughs stepped on and broken.

_´There are no Rowans here.´ _Alba felt the first stirs of uneasiness travel up her spine as she fingered the berries and ate some. _´But these are only a few boughs. I ought not worry so much.´ _Yet she did.

"It's witches' hut at the end. Surely." Gerda eyed the surroundings, picking his nails.

"I'd step in there briefly if you don't mind." Alba rose up and looked forward, flexing her fingers. "Is your ring finger in what condition?"

"I can fight alone."

Realizing he was under negative scrutinization, Gerda moved forward first. Lone branches snapped underneath his bare soles and his teak coloured skin got scratched the deeper they went. The stomping followed the mountain range's base, clearly lining the forest edge but staying out of open. Still, they clambered up a hillock the path went to.

"This is not a path for anyone to walk upon." Riding a horse here would be impossible. Yet, the more they went along, the more they noticed that something had walked here, not on the path, but next to it, following the easiest route with diligence.

_´Those are the tracks of a deer,´_ Gerda noted. The scuffing of their feet could probably be heard long way onwards. The road wriggled and went over a wide rivulet and down another hillock before they saw a glade ahead and a house under a projection.

"Told you this was a witch hut path..." Alba said drily.

"I sense no malevolence nor witches. They're tillers, not witches." Gerda, however, narrowed his eyes at the house. It was a shack, for the lack of better word. Branches sprawled over the walls as if precious items and had different kinds of things hung from their smaller branches by a thin hempen rope. The roof was steep and high up with rain soaked dark shingles and a small brick chimney that had smoke coming out of it. Window frames were made from the same dark, old wood and looked ready to split in two thanks to the iron nails that hammered them to the wall. The whole area reeked of something gone bad, something spoiled and the bushes rustled farther away from them.

"It's a witch hut."

"Witches don't grow beets in their backyard," Gerda remarked, pointing at the small vegetable garden near the hut.

"I remain unconvinced." Alba eyed a cart full of fieldwork equipment; pitchforks, shovels, a mattock, a bow rake and a harness for an ox. Gerda stepped over a puddle made by this morning's rain, and walked to the door before knocking it. An elderly woman opened it almost immediately.

"Ah, good evening."

"Evening..." Alba muttered, now standing beside her brother.

"Are you lost? A lot of people get lost in here," she was circumspect with them, you could see it from the stiff set of shoulders she had and the look in her eyes.

_´'Tis is foolishness,´ _Alba commented in her mind, when her brother and the housewife talked. That's when the householder came into her view, stepping up to stand beside the older woman. He looked just as suspecting as she but it was that something in his arms that made her pause.

"Brother." Alba tugged her brother's pants since he had no shirt. He had noticed a child in mottled garment too.

Maka was sleeping against the man's breast, sucking her thumb.

Gerda immediately asked, "Might you have seen this one's companion? A big man with red eyes."

The woman blinked twice, the wary look in her eyes disappearing.

"Aye," she agreed, correcting the scarf going around her shoulders. "We found them two in the woods weeks ago. But the other is dead, so we buried 'im in our garden." They were pointed at the small vegetable garden. Alba paled and bit her lip, partly from trying not to laugh, and partly from trying to keep her eyes from widening. Gerda's face remained unchanged.

"Might we dig him up? He's a part of our mottled group and some of us might take his absence badly." She didn't ask who or what their little group was. Alba moved to hold her hands behind her back.

"You do that. Take the suckling babe too." They did and skipped to the garden, borrowing the pair's shovels and mattock. The "grave" wasn't truly visible but only a slight mound on which laid Rowan berries and a number of dry Rowan boughs.

"This is no coincidence." Alba gnawed her teeth, angry. They started digging.

"Nothing." Gerda stood there and did nothing after they were done and a high mound of dark earth rested next to the grave. He stared at Asura's closed eyelids with his own bloodshot ones and fingered his piercing. The earring proved to be able to calm him down. Only prints made by hooves – probably a deer by the looks of it – were apparent on the ground amongst their stamped earth.

"What happened to him?" Alba asked, removing dirt from Asura's face. It was strange how no worm or beetle had tried to eat him.

"I can only be fanciful. I don't know." Gerda almost lunged at Asura, checking his belongings, clothes and anything that could indicate poisoning.

"It'd be wise to carry him to a healer," Gerda pointed out after unfavourable results. Alba snorted.

"You think this is a mere case where someone just has to dabble with the right worts?"

"I was talking about Eibon, who most likely has countered something like this before and would know better than us." The reply was wry with a matter-of-fact tone. Alba pondered it. Asura had no injuries nor did it look like he had been poisoned.

_'He has been caught unaware.´ _She realized._´We do not know these hostile lands and yet we already have a casualty...'_

"Well we'd never know, but it's not safe here. I fear for us as well were we to stay." She eyed the prints of hooves on the ground, nose detecting the spoiled milk again. "Come, let's move him. I have a place where I can take them." She stepped up, letting her brother carry Fear and she took the babe to her breast.

In the bushes a stag gave a noise. It bore its rider and its snake harness with no difficulty, though its hooves did sink a bit lower into the mud on the ground and it stamped around. Vida corrected her crown of branches, this time made from supple birch. She was seeing with her wide milky green eyes and she was holding a Rowan bough under the grove.

* * *

A/N:

_*Zhelezni vrata = _The Iron Gates

_*Nemanjić= _a Dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages

_*Bardokva= _meaning lettuce in Bulgarian and was the nickname for Ivaylo.

Alba means a sand hill and is an Aboriginal name for a girl and Rowan wards off evil (In this case Vida's considering Asura evil.)

Fuck it. I just read the first chapter and . . . .Bratty! Fuck, I'm so sorry guys. And this chapter went pretty fast. The travelling part was kind of unrealistic (sorry again) but I REALLY needed to get it out of the way so...not flame maybe? Not to mention I need a new beta. I can't really say anything of my last one (it was my fault) but I hope this chapter doesn't contain too many spelling and grammar mistakes. Please review and happy late Easter.


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